Freedom for Intellectual Progress; S. Pick

A man of these opinions will usu ally say something like this: "Of course free enterprise does have its advantages. I will even go so far as to say that for the average man it is ideal. But what about the intellectual and intelMrs. Pick, a young Australian freelance au thor, currently shares with her husband a working holiday in London. lR6 lectual progress?" Here he pauses. This is often considered to be sufficient argument against an unhampered market economy. He thinks that· aiming for a high standard of living is incom patible with intellectual progress. The implication is that, in a so ciety where profit is made by those who satisfy the wants of consum ers, the intellectual will be crushed and intellectual progress will be halted. The underlying argument is that most people have vulgar tastes in art and literature; so the work of a great poet, novelist, or artist will not be in demand' therefore, valuable creative work will vanish.

I cannot argue against him by protesting that people do not h'ave vulgar tastes and that if Shakes peare were alive today the major ity of people would rush out and buy his works, hence enabling him to survive. This is mere conjecture and he could just as well deny the truth of my supposition. I do not wish to claim that in a free enterprise system the geni us will have an easy time and have no problems. My argument is only that in such a system he, and in tellectual progress in general, will be incomparably better off than in a socialist system. The first thing to be made clear is that in a state where the gov1970 FREEDOM FOR INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 137 ernment, instead of the consumer, is in control of the media of com munication, a creator of any sort, regardless of the standard of his work, will not be allowed to pub lish anything that is out of line with current government policy.

This fact is, I think, so well known by supporters of free enterprise that I will not enlarge further upon it. The Intellectual Under Socialism Now, my opponent believes that an intellectual cannot thrive in a society which aims at securing a high standard of living. So, let's examine two possible situations in which a creator would find himself under socialism in order to show why a free enterprise system is essential for the promotion of this creator and, through him, the con tinuation of intellectual progress. The first situation has him paid by the government to produce, allowing him to make a living in dependent of the "vulgar tastes of the masses." But, as mentioned above, he would be little more than a tool of current govern mental opinion and would not be permitted to have any will of his own. In a situation like this, if it were allowed to continue, the pres ent beliefs of the government would be perpetuated and progress would cease.

The second situation finds the creative person not officially rec ognized by the state but required to make his living independent of his creative work. His society has a low standard of living. He has to work long hours merely to sur vivee He has very little spare time for creative work. He may create something of value but could prob ably create much more if his so ciety had a high standard of living and an absence of government in terference in what is published. In a free enterprise system, even if his creative work brought him no money during his lifetime, he would still have far more leisure time in which to produce it. His~ job would bring him richer finan cial returns and potential savings. Such savings might enable him to quit his jop, if he so desired, for periods of intensive creative work, and perhaps let him publish his work if no one else were willing to do so. In addition, he has the chance of earning money from the sale of his work or from grants made to him by interested people.

A free enterprise system is not only the most productive for those who live under it, but also essen tial for the intellectual enrichment of society. In view of the massive body of socialistic propaganda to the contrary, the need for demon strating the intellectual advantag es of free enterprise can scarcely be overemphasized. ® CHARLES B. SHUMAN '* '* '*'* ';t:reedom for ~armerJ '* '* WE ARE A NATION of frustrated people. The liberals are bitter be cause their socialist schemes have not produced the results they ex pected. The intended beneficiaries are unhappy because the promised utopia did not materialize. Black people were promised immediate equality and prosperity. The aged were given increases in social se curity payments only to find that inflation gobbled up the gains. Union labor was given everything it asked for but the cost of living skyrocketed and some unions have priced their members' services out of the market. Farmers who pro duce grain and cotton were given price supports and payments but found that these "benefits" were offset by depressed market prices Mr. Shuman has served for the past fifteen years as President of the American Farm Bureau Federation. This article is from his address on December 8, 1969, at the fiftieth annual meeting of the AFBF.