Capitalism and the Integrity of Liberty

Dejun Wan

FHS

Professor Areshize

3/16/2013

The history of contemporary politics can be summed up as a collection of struggles to preserve human welfare and equality in a democratic society. The history also bears witness that in order to build an ideal and democratic society, safeguarding both the political right and economic right of the people is indispensable. However, is safeguarding the political right equally important as safeguarding economic right? Is it possible that one of the two rights can be preserved while the other can be sacrificed? These are very disputable questions. In the first two chapters of Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman argues that political right and economic right are so inextricably connected that preserving both rights is the only way to achieve true freedom. In order to build a democratic society, government should endeavor not interfere with the economy but use its power to protect the property rights and to create a free market.

First, Friedman argues that the economic freedom is in itself a component of total freedom because government’s limitation on economic freedom has huge effects on individual’s life. Economic freedom is not just used as a means to pursue some higher goals, but economic freedom itself is something valuable to pursue. Friedman gives three examples to prove his point. The first example is that British government prohibits its citizen to spend their vacations in the United States due to the exchange control after the World War II. Friedman compares it to United States government’s prohibition on its citizens to spend holidays in Russia due to different political views. The comparison shows that an ostensible economic limitation has the same effect as the political limitation because both of them deprive the essential freedom, the freedom to move, of the citizens. Then Friedman gives the example of the compulsory old age insurance in the United States. Workers are compelled by the...