It was my privilege to speak at the inaugural meeting of the new student group, Liberty at Boston University, on April 19, 2011.
Thank you for inviting me to speak this evening, and congratulations to Anthony Priestas, Daniel Suraci, and staff advisor Gavin Pitt for launching this important group.
The group is part of the network of Students for Liberty. I have been impressed with SFL’s great success, in the U.S. and internationally, and am pleased to be in its OWL Society (Old Wise Libertarians). I started my own section of this, YOWL (Youthful Old Wise Libertarians).
When I was a student in Boston University School of Law, Class of 1978, as far as I knew, I was the sole libertarian in the school and the university. In fact, I did not personally know a single libertarian in the world. Now, though, the ideas of liberty are spreading, and many more people consider themselves libertarian.
I only learned last month that there had been a libertarian student at BU in the decade before I was there. His name was Lanny Friedlander, and in 1968, he had started a publication called Reason. The publication was mimeographed. For the generation that grew up with the Internet, think of this as an advanced form of cave drawing.
Mr. Friedlander sold the publication a few years later, and since 1978, it has been published by Reason Foundation. Mr. Friedlander passed away last month, and Reason honored his memory.
While I was unaware of Lanny Friedlander, I was certainly familiar with Martin Luther King Jr., who had inspired countless people with his courageous work, and had been assassinated in the same year Reason began, 1968. I also knew that Dr. King had received his doctorate at BU’s School of Theology.
The sculpture by Sergio Castillo commemorating Dr. King, “Free at Last,” had been erected in the spring of 1975 in Marsh Plaza. BU explains that “the work features 50 doves flying in formation, representing peace in all 50 states.”
Dr. King said, “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular—but one must take it simply because it is right.” This is what libertarians do every day.
What is Libertarianism?
David Boaz, in his book, Libertarianism: A Primer, writes, “Libertarianism is the view that each person has the right to live his life in any way he chooses as long as he respects the equal rights of others.”
We libertarians believe that government should exist, at the most, to protect our rights to life, liberty, and property. This means that we consider the only legitimate role of government is to provide local security, a system of justice, and defense.
A key concept, which most people outside the libertarian world never consider, is that government acts through force or the threat of force. In other words, it maintains a monopoly on legal violence. When government exceeds its limited role, it acts illegitimately and thus immorally.
Why Libertarianism Is the Compassionate Political Philosophy
Libertarians seek to confine government to its limited role. When government exceeds its limited role, it cannot act compassionately, since an immoral government cannot be compassionate government. It also creates suffering, adds to suffering, and inhibits the alleviation of suffering.
Government lacks the capacity for compassion, since it depends on force and takes the wealth of others. Libertarians respect the natural desire of people to act in their own, voluntary ways to alleviate suffering. We believe government should stand aside in favor of the wiser, more effective efforts of individuals and private organizations.
Thus, libertarianism is compassionate because it seeks to limit the natural tendency of government to wreak harm, while preserving the liberty of individuals to exercise true compassion.
Role of Economics in Libertarianism
Libertarianism is a political philosophy, and freedom is its own virtue. In the words of Lord Acton, “Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.”
The purported benefits of programs that are outside the scope of limited government are thus irrelevant. The programs are illegitimate, since they contravene our liberty. Nonetheless, it is helpful for libertarians to understand a little about economics, since the field helps explain government behavior, and allows us to counter myths and fallacies.
Bastiat
Frédéric Bastiat, the nineteenth century economist, gave us the term “legal plunder.” He explained how to detect this:
“See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”
Now, governments routinely engage in plunder, taking from some to benefit others. You will see this as you examine government programs.
Bastiat also gave us the concept of “the seen and the unseen”:
“There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.
Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.”
Bastiat used the parable of the broken window as an example of the need to consider the unseen consequences of action. He explained that it was a fallacy that the breaking of a shop window, requiring expenditure for its repair, was an economic benefit to the community. While the possible benefit to the glazier was seen, the shopkeeper’s lost opportunity to use the funds for other purposes was unseen.
When Japan recently suffered an earthquake and tsunami, many people rushed to note the “silver lining”—the rebuilding would be good for Japan’s economy. One of these was Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University, and recently director of the National Economic Council. Dr. Summers’s unfamiliarity with unseen consequences helps explain his support of the “stimulus” plan, which helped prolong the recession.
We observe politicians every day ignoring the future consequences of the policies they pursue. When they propose new plans, consider the real consequences that would ensue.
Public Choice Theory
This theory, developed in the twentieth century by economists including James Buchanan, tells us that governments—through politicians and bureaucrats–normally seek to benefit themselves and favored special interests, rather than the public. One factor that allows this to occur is that benefits usually are concentrated, and costs are diffused. This means that a particular interest, e.g., the ethanol industry, finds it worthwhile to lobby for subsidies and mandates. Since the costs are spread across society, however, individual voters lack the incentive to get involved and oppose the laws.
Public choice economics applies to all functions of government, including military spending. The concept of public choice cautions us to be skeptical of everything the government does.
Austrian School of Economics
Twentieth century economist Friedrich A. Hayek discussed the “knowledge problem” that dooms central planning. Markets depend on the knowledge of countless people, and governments are not omniscient. In Hayek’s term, it is a “fatal conceit” for government to believe it is smarter than the market.
This means that central planning, including by a central bank, is doomed to failure. It also means that any intervention in the market by the government, including through regulation, causes economic distortion.
Need for Disillusionment
To be a libertarian requires disillusionment–losing not our ideals, but the illusions that shield us from the truth. We have to recognize the truth:
- Government acts through force or the threat of force, so it is dangerous.
- Government always seeks to grow. It tends to steal our rights to life, liberty, and property, instead of protecting these.
- When government exceeds its limited role, it acts in a parasitical and predatory manner.
- Government almost always makes things worse.
The World We Are In
Here are some of the things we have been facing:
- Bailouts of Wall Street, automakers, and governments in Europe (through the IMF);
- A massive “stimulus” plan;
- Per capita debt, including unfunded entitlements, of about $400,000;
- The enactment of ObamaCare;
- Government hostility towards economic freedom and civil liberties;
- Three wars, and a military empire with bases in about 150 countries; and
- An ever-expanding federal government, most of the actions of which are unconstitutional.
This creates the need to fight back.
Conclusion
Each of us can contribute to promoting the ideas of liberty. A single individual can change the world, and each of us can help change the world for the better.
Reason magazine, started by BU student Lanny Friedlander in 1968, now has a circulation of 40,000. The Reason.com website and Reason TV videos reach many more people, and Reason Foundation is influential in policy areas including privatization.
Martin Luther King Jr., forty-three years after his death, remains a symbol of the power of non-violence to effect change. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the federal holiday in Dr. King’s honor.
Dr. King continues to inspire people around the world, and his life and example continue to make tyrants fearful. In 2003, Cuba’s security police arrested and imprisoned 75 people for political offenses, including owners of private libraries. One of the books to which the authorities objected was a biography of Dr. King.
The “Free at Last” sculpture reminds us of Dr. King’s legacy whenever we pass though Marsh Plaza. The vision of being free is a great one—but the work is never done. The struggle for liberty is eternal.
The people of your generation have the opportunity and challenge to be part of the struggle. I invite you to start now.
Don’t wait until you graduate to fight for liberty. Start fighting today!
