Author Archives: Elizabeth Tara Ryan

About Elizabeth Tara Ryan

Hillsdale College graduate in Economics, Communications Intern at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Saving Liberty Through Equality — and Equality Through Liberty

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If there’s one thing Americans are passionate about, it’s liberty. But tax laws that favor specific socioeconomic groups and health care laws that diminish our personal choices should cause us to ponder what liberty actually means. Liberty is undermined or supported according to the way in which we understand equality.

Abraham Lincoln is known as the champion of equality and liberty. In a speech to Union soldiers, Lincoln said: “Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions.” When a government strives for liberty and equality by protecting the rights of its citizens, it creates the environment for individuals to thrive and accomplish their noblest dreams. Universal and equal ownership of natural rights, Lincoln believed, is the definition of equality. This may sound similar to popular political thought today, which says that all are equally entitled to the same things. However, this was not Lincoln’s definition of equality.

He said about the founders: “[T]hey did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal — equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. …” Lincoln never advocated an equality of outcome, but solely equal protection under the law.

“Inequalities” unique to individuals didn’t excuse slavery. In a letter to Henry Pierce, a congressional representative from Massachusetts Lincoln wrote, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.” Equality is not ruling others, which eradicates our right to liberty; it’s simply self-rule.

Lincoln, a poor American farm boy, is a stark contrast to Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat, but they were contemporaries and both lovers of freedom. De Tocqueville studied and wrote extensively on the U.S. His ideas on equality and liberty present a different side of Lincoln’s argument. De Tocqueville believed that equality isn’t some political issue, but rather a condition, or a social fact. It’s not simply equal rights, as it was for Lincoln. The government cannot give or take true equality or freedom from individuals — it is inborn. De Tocqueville wrote: “For it is something one must feel and logic has no part in it. It is a privilege of noble minds which God has fitted to receive it, and it inspires them with a generous fervor. But to meaner souls, untouched by the sacred flame, it may well seem incomprehensible.”

De Tocqueville believed freedom and equality in the heart and soul is essential for liberty to function in society. No matter the economic status of different citizens, each one is endowed with the same rights and privileges. Protection, but not dictation, of those rights is the government’s job; the sense of freedom and equality originate only from within.

Without understanding Lincoln and de Tocqueville’s views of equality, it’s easy to think equality means that if I’m working hard and barely making ends meet, my neighbor is not entitled to the luxury of buying a new yacht. Today’s commonly accepted view of equality attempts to offer not only equal protection of rights to citizens, but also an equality of lifestyle through the tax structure and health care options. To many, equality now means entitlement. By striving for more of this definition of equality, liberty is lost, making government, comprised of one faction of “we the people,” the ruler over others.

While every citizen is entitled to the same protected rights as every other, the government has no place offering free healthcare as a step towards equality of lifestyle. Nor is it the government’s place to “level the playing field” by burdening richer citizens more than poorer ones.

Politicians today seek to redistribute wealth in an effort to reach their skewed view of equality. Focusing on this type of equality negates liberty and places the government in the role of master. The spark of liberty within us should clash against political changes like ObamaCare and selective tax laws. True freedom comes from the inside, and those who love freedom should not accept repression of it. As government expands, freedom contracts.

Americans are passionate about liberty. Our understanding of equality determines whether freedom thrives or dies. Equality is equal rights, not the entitlement of wealth. If freedom isn’t burning within, liberty and equality will perish.

An Ode to the Frie Market

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Milton Friedman won a Nobel Memorial Prize in economics
But that isn’t all about this man; a lesson on him isn’t quick

Born in Brooklyn, New York in July of nineteen hundred twelve,
Milton Friedman was a brilliant economist; in this topic he deeply delved

For thirty years, teaching economic theory was his passion
At the University of Chicago he taught the youth of the nation

As “the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century,”
His ideas spread like wildfire, to almost everyone, and were not elementary

Big government he said to shun,
Instead, free markets should have all the fun

The virtues of a free market system are so clear
Market intervention a nation should never have to bear

The government’s role in the economy should be greatly restricted.
Interference would only bring about poverty, depressions, and an economy constricted

A natural rate of unemployment he believed existed
No government could change this rate; it was healthy and should not be resisted

Though greatly opposed to the Federal Reserve,
Advice he still gives so the economy will be preserved

The advice: A small steady expansion of the money supply is the only way
If the central bank did otherwise, hyperinflation would never be kept at bay

Services offered by the government can be inefficient,
Should be performed by the private sector: that’s where they ought to be sent

One of these services is the production of money,
The private sector should produce it; and a gold base will lead to the highest stability

“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” he claimed
The relation between inflation and the money supply is close, he proclaimed

A monetarist at heart: Control of price inflation should be done with monetary deflation
In addition, price deflation is best controlled by only monetary inflation

An economic adviser to Ronald Reagan,
He predicted the policies of Keynes were bad, close to pagan

Not only would they cause high inflation
But minimal growth; later called stagflation

“Capitalism and Freedom,” a book he co-authored in nineteen sixty two
Speaks for policies like volunteer military and education vouchers, just to name a few

“A Monetary History of the United States,” which he published in nineteen sixty three
Investigates the role of money supply and economics in U.S. history

“Free to Choose,” another book that he and his wife did write,
Is where on monetary policy they shed much light

A staunch supporter of libertarian ideas, he took a chance,
When he fought for legalization of drugs and prostitution, not a popular stance

“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program” is his quote,
Noting: Once a program is started, participants will do everything to keep it afloat

He coined the phrase, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Someone always pays in the end, and will feel the punch

Milton Friedman taught many good economic lessons
Which if heeded, may have kept us out of horrid recessions

With a full life behind him and theories not previously in the mix,
Friedman died on November 16 of two thousand and six

Though he is gone, this week we honor the day Friedman was born
Today his advice to us would be, go free the market rather than mourn

A Walk in the Park Recalled

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My friend and I recently walked down to the park in the town of Midland. The scene was full of life. Arts-and-crafters lined the pavement, selling their goods. Musicians on the stage warmed up their instruments. Lawn chairs were strategically placed all over the park; old couples held hands; and children ran through the maze of people and picnic baskets.

In this lively setting, my thoughts were not political. Yet I would soon encounter a situation that caused me to see our political system in a different light.

Amid the happy throng, a group of red-shirted individuals caught my eye. Their clothing and clipboards read, “Recall Governor Snyder.” I kept my gaze low and hurried to get safely past without stirring up a conversation, since I didn’t consider an evening in the park to be an ideal time for politics

My companion, however, had a different idea.

“How many of you are picketing statewide?” he asked.

The red shirts eagerly flocked around.

I was annoyed.

By the end of a frustrating conversation with these picketers, I was almost ready to reconsider my generally scrupulous support of the First Amendment and the state constitution, which allows a recall of the governor.

After reflecting, however, my attitude changed. I don’t profess to know if Gov. Snyder should be recalled. Nevertheless, I realized that what actually annoys me are people always complaining about what’s going on in our country and claiming to know what’s best for it, but doing nothing to change it.

Thursday evening, I witnessed one of the attributes of freedom and democracy. Even though we participate in the age-old game of incessant whining about government, as citizens of the United States and Michigan, we can criticize and take action. Whichever way we choose, whether peacefully picketing, blogging, voting or running for office, we still have a say in decisions that affect our future.

As Americans, we all have different ideas about who should run our country and how it should operate. In spite of reading various editorials stating that attempting to recall Gov. Snyder is too negative, I think the recall volunteers honored our democratic system by not only knowing, but also exercising, their rights as citizens of this nation.

In a classic American scene — a walk in the park, a band warming up, young entrepreneurs selling artwork — another great theme of freedom appeared: passionate individuals devoted to a cause and committed to shaping their own future, instead of allowing someone else to form it instead.

A Centrally Planned Birthday Party (It’s Late)

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Sunday, June 5, marked 128 years since the birth of economist John Maynard Keynes. Like any good libertarian, I refused to acknowledge it. Then I stumbled across this quote attributed to him, “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”

It’s hard to overlook the poor grammar, and I am sure Keynes was not in fact promoting capitalism. Nonetheless, free-market proponents should recognize that Keynes deserves short-term credit, though not long-run praise, for a crafty distortion.

Adam Smith expounds on self-interest in his book “The Theory of Moral Sentiments.” He writes: “In spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity, though they mean only their own conveniency, though the sole end which they propose … be the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires, they [the rich] divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society.”

Apparently, Keynes forgot to read Smith’s entire book. Smith pointedly distinguishes between wickedness and selfishness. A major theme of Smith’s book is that in order for a free-market society to work, morality is necessary. Wickedness is a lack of morality, which degrades a society, while selfishness is merely caring for ones’ own needs ahead of others. A society of wicked people is different from a society of self-interested individuals.

If Smith had a chance to wish Keynes a happy birthday, he could heartily congratulate him on being partly right since, as Keynes is thought to have said, “It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.”

Happy Birthday, John Maynard Keynes. While celebrating his life and dissenting with his erroneous claims concerning capitalism, we concede that his death did validate his undisputed claim, “In the long run we are all dead.”