Equal Freedom ii Equal Freedom The Principle of Equal Freedom and Noncoercive Government Jerome L. Wright A Principled Basis for Free Societies Copyright © 2011 by Jerome L. Wright. All rights reserved. Foyle Publishing Foyle.co ii Table of Contents Preface Part 1 The Principle of Equal Freedom 1. The Concept of Equal Freedom 2. The Principle and Its Corollaries 3. Application in a Free Society 4. Application in a Controlled Society Part 2 The Individual in Equal Freedom 5. Rights and Properties 6. Living Without Coercion 7. Living Without Fraud 8. Living With Responsibility 9. Living With Equal Respect 10. Living in Liberty Part 3 The Role of Noncoercive Government 11. The Nature of Noncoercive Government 12. The Role of Government 13. Societal Services 14. The Societal System Part 4 The Functioning of Noncoercive Government 15. Operating Proprietary Governments 16. Clients and Government 17. Preparation 18. Implementation and Transition 19. A Civilization of Equal Freedom Bibliography Index iii PREFACE While there is a multitude of predecessors who have made a work such as this possible, these stand out in my mind as the most prominent builders of the theory of freedom: John Locke, Herbert Spencer, Gustave de Molinari, Lysander Spooner, Albert Jay Nock, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises. Freedom is the ability to live your life as you wish to live it, with full control of your properties. Equal freedom means having your freedom while respecting the same freedom of others. No government on Earth today allows freedom, although many claim they do. It is possible to attain and maintain a society of freedom, but not an easy task on this world. This book is an argument that those who wish to live in freedom be allowed to do so, somewhere within our Solar System. Many people prefer to live under coercion, as history amply demonstrates. Those people should have the freedom to give up their freedom (but not to force others to give up their freedom). They should, however, retain sufficient freedom in those cases to regain the degree of freedom they wish if they change their preferences. The people running the governments of Earth will not easily give up their privileged positions or their coercive grip on their subjects. They do not even begrudge small, inhospitable parts of Earth to be given over to those who do not want to live under political governments—that is unacceptable, probably because it sets a bad example. This book comes from my conviction that a free society needs a clear statement of principle upon which its freedom is based. This work is my attempt to show what follows from such a principle. It is also my conviction that free societies not only provide justice and opportunity for people, but that they are essential for the long-term survival of humanity. The need for true freedom, for government without the coercive State, goes far beyond the benefits to the people who would live in freedom—this is a necessary step in the evolution of society and civilization, to build a stronger civilization, with justice and without the burdens of war-making political leaders, squandering of society’s wealth, and restrictive rigidity of society that impedes further progress with civilization. The ultimate benefit is the increased probability of the survival of humanity. The works of Locke, Paine, Spencer, and numerous others favoring the rights and freedoms of individuals have followed a progression typical of all sciences. Each practitioner tests and judges the works of his predecessors and tries to advance the science by adding better-stated truths and removing or repairing what he perceives to be flaws in the earlier works. Such is the case with this offering—one more brick laid in a long road. Jerome L. Wright 2011 May 29 iv The danger to which the success of revolutions is most exposed, is that of attempting them before the principles on which they proceed, and the advantages to result from them, are sufficiently seen and understood. ~ Thomas Paine It is in the monopoly of security that lies the principal cause of wars that have laid waste to humanity. ~ Gustave de Molinari There is not a single human social institution which has not originated in hit or miss fashion, but, nevertheless, every one of these institutions is justified by some rationalizing argument as the best possible, and, what is worse, the community demands the acceptance of the arguments as a precondition of happy social life. ~ Percy W. Bridgman v PART 1 THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUAL FREEDOM vi vii Chapter 1 The Concept of Equal Freedom A stable and just society requires precepts and standards that its members accept, which become the framework within which those members can live their lives in an honest and productive manner. A fundamental principle was enunciated centuries ago by thoughtful men who were concerned with the dignity and worth of the individual—a principle that can provide those very precepts and standards. It is the Principle of Equal Freedom. This book was written to help carry that principle forward, to expand upon the implications of the principle, and hopefully to convince others to adopt the principle as the foundation of their lives. A free society needs a foundation on which to evaluate actions and expectations. A strong, comprehensive principle makes the best foundation, a foundation that remains constant across the years. With such a foundation, people can go about their lives knowing what is expected of them and what they can reasonably expect of others. Where the foundation is a principle, a society and its people have the greatest freedom and flexibility in adapting to the inevitable changes that life brings. In contrast, a coercive society is controlled by a massive set of arbitrary laws, most of which are in place to favor certain factions in the society. These laws strongly constrain the lives of people and rigidify the society, reducing their ability to adapt to changing conditions. The arbitrary laws and social rigidity assure that freedom, justice, and peace are generally unobtainable within the society. Freedom requires no justification; no appeals to nature, deity, or other sources are needed. People can have freedom whenever they establish it for themselves and defend it. In the world as it is today, the moment that defense stops, freedom is lost. Once lost, it is very difficult to regain. Societies can exist and function well without institutional coercion and fraud. They can provide freedom for their people and well-being beyond any that can be achieved when liberty is 1 2 Equal Freedom compromised. Free societies do not provide all of the features of contemporary life: they lack empires and offensive wars, for example. Their people would have to learn how to get along without those features of primitive civilization. No society and no government now on Earth have a clear principle underlying their functioning to fully protect the individual. Very few individuals have a clear principle to guide their actions and define their ethics. Most of what guides individuals is what their parents, teachers, and religious leaders told them when they were children, modified a bit by experience. The premise of this book is that things sociological work better and provide more justice when a clear, moral principle is in place. The history of sociological work on the best form of society is filled with assumptions that have not always stood up under close scrutiny. Those assumptions have included premises such as: society should be the way that God decreed, society should provide the greatest good for the greatest number, society should be directed by God’s chosen ruler, society should be structured to follow the will of the majority, and society should be based on individual freedom. This work is concerned with the latter premise, that individual freedom should prevail. This is in stark contrast with contemporary society where the State prevails while granting a few protections to its subjects. 1. The Possibility of Freedom Freedom is about liberty and property, but, moreover, it is the elimination of coercion and fraud as social institutions. A free society cannot have coercion and fraud as social institutions. Over three hundred years ago, John Locke wrote on equal freedom, property, and upholding natural law: Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom, and an uncontrouled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men; but to judge of, and punish the breaches of that law in others ...1 Locke also wrote that [political] government would be unnecessary except for the defense of people and their properties. Gustave de Molinari showed in 1847 how private companies could provide that protection of lives and properties. Our knowledge of how free societies could be established and maintained has advanced substantially since then. In particular, we know how free societies can be protected from assaults ranging from street muggers to attacks by coercive government. Since these functions can be provided by private companies, along with all other necessary services provided by the State, there is no reason to have to endure the theft and control that come from the State. The State can be shut down and freedom can take its rightful place in human society. Civilized society can exist without institutional coercion and fraud, and without the 1 Second Treatise, § 87. 1:1. The Concept of Equal Freedom 3 institutions that employ them.