Freedom in One Lesson

1.

Every Person Should Be Free

As the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, Leonard Read was very much a leader of libertarian thought. It will be helpful to first discuss what that philosophy included, especially in an era of so much erroneous and misleading political information.

Read gives a thumbnail sketch of his view of liberty in “In an Ideal America” (Read 1954), published in the November 1954 issue of The Freeman. It consists of things that everyone should be free to do:

Every person should be free

• to pursue his ambition to the full extent of his abilities, regardless of race or creed or family background.

• to associate with whom he pleases for any reason he pleases, even if someone else thinks it’s a stupid reason.

• to worship God in his own way, even if it isn’t “orthodox.”

• to choose his own trade and to apply for any job he wants—and to quit his job if he doesn’t like it or if he gets a better offer.

• to go into business for himself, be his own boss, and set his own hours of work—even if it’s only three hours a week.

• to use his honestly acquired property or savings in his own way—spend it foolishly, invest it wisely, or even give it away.

• to offer his services or products for sale on his own terms, even if he loses money on the deal.

• to buy or not to buy any service or product offered for sale, even if the refusal displeases the seller.

• to disagree with any other person, even when the majority is on the side of the other person.

• to study and learn whatever strikes his fancy, as long as it seems to him worth the cost and effort of studying and learning it.

• to do as he pleases in general, as long as he doesn’t infringe the equal right and opportunity of every other person to do as he pleases.

When applied to themselves, few would disagree with the principles of Read’s brief list, which incorporates thinking never abandoned in the millions of words he published thereafter. In that sense, they command a high degree of unanimity. But many would sacrifice the freedoms of others to give themselves added freedom (e.g., easing the constraints that scarcity imposes on them by increasing those constraints on others), which is why a general belief in liberty for oneself can coexist with massive impositions on the freedoms of other citizens. It is a touchstone of liberty that freedom must be universally applied. There is no liberty unless it is for all—an equality of freedoms.

Read goes on to summarize the purpose of his list. “The above, in a nutshell, is the way of life that the libertarian philosophy commends. It is the way of individual liberty, of the free market, of private property, of government limited to securing these rights equally for all.”

The chapters that follow are intended to communicate, in his own powerful words, Leonard Read’s case for that libertarian philosophy. His arguments should be considered with an open mind: most of us already believe in freedom, but our freedoms would expand if we just extended them by two words: “for all.”