A prior post with some tweaks:
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One of the most overlooked and effective checks on government and guardian of individual freedom is the existence of private property and the mere existence of free market capitalism.
Ludwig von Mises, in his classic exposition, Liberalism: The Classical Tradition, remarks:
"There is an inherent tendency in all governmental power to recognize no restraints on it operation and to extend the sphere of its dominion as much as possible...If only private property did not stand in the way! Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will. It allows other fores to arise side by side with and in opposition to political power...It is the soil in which the seeds of freedom are nurtured and in which the automony of the individual and ultimaely all intellectual and material progress are rooted." [Emphasis added.]The recognition of and respect for private property sets a “No Trespassing” sign (or, for you Lord of The Rings geeks—like myself—a Gandolf-like You Shall Not Pass! declaration) between ourselves and our economy and the authoritarian proclivities of government. Hence, the vital importance of insisting on economic freedom: If we are free to voluntarily exchange our property among ourselves, we create forces outside of and in opposition to the power of government. We create and maintain one more check on the power of government.
Think of it as economic checks and balances. We, the People create and maintain the free market economy through the voluntary exchange of our private property, making arbitrary government actions less likely.
In Capitalism and Freedom
, Milton Friedman also stresses the importance of private property and its resulting free market as an economic counter force to the power of government: "History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom." Why? In a free market society economic power is widely dispersed among many millions of hands in which government has a limited role prescribed by law.
If government comes to direct and control the economy by laying claim to too much of our private property, it comes to control both political and economic power over our lives. Economic power is then transferred from millions of hands working through voluntary exchange who hold no coercive power over each other to being concentrated into a few sets of hands in government regulatory agencies who already possess coercive political force.
Thus the folly of believing we can remain free by being only persnickety about civil rights such as free speech and freedom of religion but neglecting to jealously guard our economic freedom and private property rights. We cannot afford the confluence of political force and economic power in the same hands.“By removing the organization of economic activity from the control of political authority, the market eliminates this source of coercive power. It enables economic strength to be a check to political power rather than a reinforcement.” [Emphasis added.]
As the discussion of repealing or improving the recent health care law revs up, keep in mind the enormous control over both the economy and our personal lives government stands to a accumulate as the law gets phased in over the next few years. Your body is certainly your property, and how we pay for our health is a matter for our cooperative, free market economy, not a matter of coercive political power. Allowing government force to control the health care market would be wildly unhealthy, both literally and politically.
