Barack Obama thinks we should be grateful to the government for creating the conditions that allow for human flourishing, building of businesses, creation of jobs, and inventions of products that improve our quality of life.
Those who believe in liberty have another theory. We think that government is responsible to us and is charged primarily with protecting the fundamental liberties which we already have – just because we are human. We believe that individuals, pursuing their own best interest, will, as if directed by an invisible hand, build businesses, create jobs, invent products and so promote their own flourishing as well as that of their neighbors.
Every time I think about it, I am amazed by the intricacy of global economics. There are conventions and continuing education opportunities for waste management providers and undertakers. Every piece of equipment in a hospital emergency room or a commercial kitchen is manufactured in precision conditions. Geneticists have created seedless watermelons for our enjoyment. And somewhere, a craftsman used high quality tools to turn one or more trees into the incredible bookshelf (pictured above) that my husband and I bought on our honeymoon.
This video brings home the miracle of human creativity and economic activity:
In his essay, “I, Pencil,” Leonard Read concludes:
The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society’s legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed. I, Pencil, seemingly simple though I am, offer the miracle of my creation as testimony that this is a practical faith, as practical as the sun, the rain, a cedar tree, the good earth.
Government can’t build anything. It can take our tax dollars with our mutual agreement and use them efficiently or inefficiently to protect or destroy our liberties. But ultimately we are responsible for what our government does. We created it. We pay for it. It belongs to us. And if it oversteps its boundaries, we can take it back.
