Do Americans Still Value Freedom?
by Edward L. Hudgins
July 4, 2001
America is a unique country, founded on the principle
that we are endowed with "certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of
Happiness." Yet today, through taxes and regulations,
government takes half of what each American earns. Government
regulates what goods and services entrepreneurs can
offer consumers, and restricts consumer freedom to buy
many goods from other countries. Politicians currently
are trying to restrict or ban what we can smoke, where
we can use our cell phones, what we can view on the
Internet, and which fattening foods we can eat.
How is it that the people of a country dedicated to
freedom put up with such restrictions from political
elites? Do Americans still value freedom?
Polls suggest that Americans still love liberty but
with curious contradictions. Some 56 percent say they
would favor smaller government with fewer services rather
than larger government with more services. Some 65 percent
believe big government will be the biggest threat to
the country in the future. And 75 percent believe unemployed
welfare recipients would find jobs if they were not
on welfare. Yet 69 percent respond that they favor more
government help to reduce poverty.
For some, "freedom" is a feel-good word, like Mom
and apple pie. Who can be against it? The seeming contradictions
in Americans' attitudes toward freedom in part result
from confusion created by those who would restrict freedom.
This confusion is best seen in Franklin D. Roosevelt's
Four Freedoms. Two of them, freedom of speech and worship,
are "negative" rights that simply require the government
and your fellow citizens to leave you alone. Your freedom
to speak your mind or worship as you please does not
deprive others of their right to do the same. But Roosevelt's
freedom from want and from fear were different. For
example, part of the "positive" freedom from want might
mean that government must provide a house to those who
can't afford one. In such a case either government agents
must march you out at gunpoint and force you to build
the house or do a kinder, gentler version of the same
thing: tax you to pay to have one built. Someone's right
to a house means you are deprived of your money.
Freedom from want implies eternal satisfaction with
all desires met. That is a utopia. And that is impossible.
Just ask the Russians. It's good that Americans value
prosperity and want everyone to prosper. But it is the
liberty to earn money by creating goods and services
-- including houses -- that creates prosperity, not
a license to steal from those who do the creating.
Another problem is that some people confuse democracy
with freedom. For example, sociology professor Orlando
Patterson bemoans the "dismal state of participatory
democracy, the very foundation of any free society."
Our republic -- not a pure democracy -- was established
as a means to protect individual liberty. But the Founders
recognized that voters and elected officials could rob
minorities of liberty and property. That's why they
established a system of checks and balances. Patterson's
survey, however, found that people most frequently identify
freedom with "the desire and ability to do what one
wants." Americans understand what is most valuable.
Yet another problem is that some Americans have difficulty
imagining how a free society would actually work. Without
welfare, Social Security, and Medicare, wouldn't we
all be dying in the streets? Well, we weren't prior
to any of those programs. If federal, state and local
governments in America did not redistribute wealth,
we would each have more wealth to purchase what we want,
on our own terms, without government strings attached.
Americans still seem to value freedom. But they mistake
the problems caused by intrusive government for problems
caused by freedom, and thus support restrictions on
freedom. For instance, there was no health care crisis
prior to government intervention in the health care
market in 1965. Since then, problems have multiplied,
and government keeps "reforming" the reforms that perpetuate
In recent decades many moral habits that result from
living free -- taking responsibility for our own lives,
putting our minds and creativity to their best use --
have atrophied. But just as weakened muscles are strengthened
by exercise, a return of our rights to fully exercise
our freedom will again make us individuals who will
expect nothing less than our full rights to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
Edward Hudgins is director of regulatory studies
at the Cato Institute.