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Why Liberals are Not Libertarians
By Ernest Partridge (about the author) Page 2 of 5 page(s)
Now consider the implications of this denial of the "independent existence" of "the public" and "society." If there is no "public," then there are no "public goods" and there is no "public interest." If there is no "society," then there is no "social harm," or "social injustice" or "social (and public) responsibility." It then follows that government has no role in mitigating "social injustice" or promoting "the public interest," since these terms are fundamentally meaningless. Poverty and racial discrimination, for example, are individual problems requiring individual solutions.
In contradistinction, the liberal affirms that "society" and "the public" are "emergent entities," like chemical compounds, languages, and living organism, with qualities distinct from those of their components. Attempts to reduce societies and publics to their component individuals is what the Brits call "nothing buttery:" for example, "a Beethoven symphony is nothing but notes," or "Hamlet is nothing but a string of words," or "a human mind is nothing but cells and synapses."
Good for Each, Bad for All.
If we can cite cases in which advantages to each individual harms the interest of all individuals, and conversely that harm to each individual benefits all individuals, then, by distinguishing "each" and "all" we have demonstrated the existence of an "all-entity," "society," that is distinct from a summation of "each" individual. Elsewhere, I have attempted at some length to prove that society is more than the sum of its component members ("good for each, bad for all," and "bad for each, good for all").
Consider just two examples:
Antibiotics: The over-use of antibiotics "selects" resistant "super-bugs," decreasing the effectiveness of antibiotics for all. But just one more anti-biotic prescription for a trivial, "self-limiting" bronchial infection won't make a significant difference "in general," while it will clearly benefit the individual patient. But multiply that individual doctor's prescription by the millions, and we have a serious problem. "Good for each patient, bad for the general population." The solution: restrict the use of antibiotics to the seriously ill. Individuals with trivial and non-life-threatening ailments must "tough it out." "Bad for each, good for all."
Traffic laws: We all agree that traffic laws can be a nuisance. But if you believe that traffic lights constrain your freedom of movement, try to drive across Manhattan during a power outage! In the blackouts of 1965 and 1977 in the eastern United States and Canada, traffic began to move only after the police and a few citizen volunteers stood at the intersections and directed traffic. (I was in Manhattan during both events). The decision of each driver to accept constraints worked to the advantage of all. So too with the traffic lights and stop signs that we encounter daily. We are all freer to move about only because we have collectively agreed to restrict our individual freedom of movement. "Bad for each, good for all."
A third example of individual self-serving behavior leading to ruin for all, "the tragedy of the commons," follows shortly.
To sum up: "society" is not, as the libertarians would have us believe, simply a physical location where autonomous private individuals "do their own thing," from which activity somehow, "as if by an invisible hand" (Adam Smith), benefits for all accrue without foresight or planning. On the contrary, the liberal insists, a society is more than the sum of its individual parts. A society is, as John Rawls puts it, "a cooperative venture for mutual advantage [which] makes possible a better life for all than any would have if each were to live solely by his own efforts." As the anti-biotics and traffic examples illustrate, common goods are achieved through individual constraint and sacrifice. " Bad for each, good for all." Conversely, unconstrained self-serving behavior by each individual can harm society as a whole. "Good for Each, Bad for all."
The liberal does not deny that self-serving individual behavior, for example by scientists, entrepreneurs and artists, often or even usually results in benefits for all. ("Good for each, good for all"). Instead, the liberal insists that this is not a universal rule. In innumerable instances, such as the two presented above, it can be clearly shown that social benefit requires individual constraint and sacrifice.
Market Failure: The Back of the Invisible Hand
The libertarian insists that, apart from the protection of life, liberty and property, whatever government attempts, privatization and the free-market can do better. For example,
Jacob Halbrooks: "Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' of the market guides all participants in society to promote the best wishes of everyone else by pursuing his own wants and desires."
David Boaz: "[T]he free market allows more people to satisfy more of their desires, and ultimately to enjoy a higher standard of living than any other social system... We need simply to remember to let the market process work in its apparent magic and not let the government clumsily intervene in it so deeply that it grinds to a halt."
And Milton and Rose Friedman: "A free market [co-ordinates] the activity of millions of people, each seeking his own interest, in such a way as to make everyone better off... Economic order can emerge as the unintended consequence of the actions of many people, each seeking his own interest."
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