Thoughts on Freedom ~ Interpreting the State of the World

Why are optimists about the state of the world disproportionately represented by classical liberals, libertarians, and free-market conservatives, while pessimists about the state of the world are disproportionately represented by statists? …

…We’re living longer and healthier, working less, playing more, and consuming more, all on a planet that is resource-rich and vibrant.

 If I were a champion of big government, rather than deny these facts, I’d trumpet them as evidence that the interventionist policies pursued since the New Deal work wonders. Real household incomes are higher (I’d allege) because of Social Security, minimum-wage legislation, and several anti-discrimination statutes. We’re healthier and living longer (I’d allege) because of Medicare and Medicaid, a variety of product- and workplace-safety regulations, the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency, and government’s crackdown on tobacco use.

And the natural environment is in fine health (I’d allege) because of the EPA and the plethora of national, state, and local regulations aimed at protecting it.

Yet if we are to believe the factual claims issued by the modern left about the state of the world, it is quite plausible to conclude that not one of their cherished programs works very well. Ordinary Americans and the earth stand on the brink of the abyss despite generations of government growth and increasing intervention.

Seems an odd claim, coming as it does chiefly from the left.

Perhaps equally odd is the consistent optimism about the state of the world by market-friendly scholars. It would hardly be surprising if, the moment someone asserted that the living standards of ordinary Americans have stagnated now for nearly two generations, students of Milton Friedman and scholars inspired by Mises and Hayek would accept such claims at face value and pronounce, “See! We told you so. First came the expansion of Uncle Sam’s power under Woodrow Wilson, and then came the explosion of such power under Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, followed by increases in power ever since. The stagnation of incomes and the degradation of the environment surely are the result of the growth of the state during the twentieth and very early 21st centuries—or, at the very least, the growth of the state has done nothing to prevent these problems.”

But the typical free-market advocate resists this temptation. He or she examines the facts and correctly concludes that living standards and the state of the environment are much better today than they were 30 or 40 years ago.

Of course, it remains possible for the free-market advocate still to make a strong case against the many government interventions that today crowd our lives. But much, if not all, of that case is in the form of a counterfactual: If government were less intrusive, the economy and the environment would be even better than they currently are. However   strong such a case is, the truth remains that the intrusive, grasping, and powerful government of the past few generations has not absolutely reduced our living standards.

So why do free-market advocates consistently proclaim that living standards and the state of the world are generally improving? …

…I used to be astonished. I am no longer, because I believe that I now understand why opponents of liberty constantly bemoan the current state of the world. Quite simply, problem-mongering is the surest path to power. No matter how good things are, we humans can always imagine them being even better. No matter how clearly the data show progress, data can be cherry-picked and interpreted to make matters appear grim.

And no matter how much freedom government has stripped from us, as long as some economic freedoms remain, those on the left will see such freedoms as the source not only of real imperfections, but also of failures to attain what can be achieved only in the fantasies of those with ample faith in the power of the state. …