Socialized Error; P.L. Poirot

PAUL L. POIROT To SEE a grown man make a child ish mistake is embarrassing, even if he is the sole victim and mis leads or harms no one else in the process. Nor does one enjoy see ing two or more responsible adults collaborating to be wrong at their own expense. Yet, one observes errors all about him every day of his life; and his problem is to tol erate such behavior and to learn from it. Otherwise, one finds him self trying alone, or conspiring, to forcibly prevent others from mak ing their own mistakes. Unfortunately, in a highly in dustrialized trading economy such as ours, ·it seems increasingly dif ficult to be mi,staken only at one's own expense. A man mistakes a red light for a green and harms someone else in the process. His raucous hi-fi set disturbs his neighbors. His inefficient garbage disposal is an eyesore, or worse, to the community. The weeds on / / / / / I<§' // <i}~ his vacant lot happen to be mari juana. His factory belches smoke.

His cropping practices aggravate floods - or dust storms. Now, it is especially annoying to see anyone making mistakes that are harmful not only to him self but to other quite innocent persons as well. Most of us can find considerable justification for bringing a bit of force to bear against such disturbers of the peace. Yet, in the process of ap plying that force, we may be com mitting the worst mistake of all: the socialization of error - com pelling everyone in the society to share the cost of the reform we advocate. Such is the anomaly of free dom. On the one hand, it allows more and more of us to live longer lives of greater comfort and ease. At the same time, it brings us closer to one another and makes each of us in his specialty more 407 408 THE FREEMAN July dependent on the other specialists with whom he trades goods and services. The open frontiers of land and air and water disappear.

More and more of the bounties of Nature, once free for the taking, are drawn into the category of scarce economic resources which are worth owning and command a price in the market. Effects of Crowding As industrialized people become more and more crowded together in their increased affluence, per sonal mistakes not only become more obvious to others and more annoying but also tend more and more to trespass upon the prop erty and to jeopardize the liberties and the lives of others. The lim ited rules of law and order ap plicable to the open range and frontier life seem inadequate to cover the increasing frictions of crowded urban living. In their dis tress at some of these noxious fruits of affluence and progress, many persons hasten to the con clusion that "there ought to be a la.w" - a bit of coercion to prevent the individual from making his own mistakes. And the result of this expanded sphere of govern mental intervention and control is that everyone is compelled to help pay for mistakes that were none of his own doing. Here are a few samples of popular reform measures for which the taxpayer is held accountable: • government schools with compul sory attendance on the theory that this will teach the individual to make fewer mistakes.

• government systems of transpor tation on the theory that this will facilitate the desired movement of goods and services and people. • government health and welfare programs on the theory that this will enable and encourage indi viduals to lead happier and more useful lives. • government parks, playgrounds, and other recreational facilities on the theory that these will lead to more constructive uses of leisure. • government communication facili ties on the theory that people will thereby be better informed and more understanding of the views and the problems of others. • government supplied water, fuel, power, and other utilities on the theory that this will promote the fare. • government regulation and control of wages, prices, rents, interest rates, advertising, purity and quality of products, competitive practices, working conditions, in surance, banking, and numerous other aspects of business on the 1973 SOCIALIZEDERROR 409 theory that voluntary traders are unfit judges of fairness and equity.

• government privileges to labor, agriculture, industry, professional groups, and similar minorities on the theory of equality after the law. • government aid to other govern ments on the theory that this will improve the American image abroad and stimulate exports. • government printing of legal tender notes on the theory that traders otherwise might waste their time panning gold. The foregoing list illustrates but by no means exhausts the ways in which mistakes are so cialized in the name of preventing personal errors of judgment and action. This is not to question the desirability of and the need for education, transportation, health care, recreation, communication, water, fuel, electricity, insurance, banking, business integrity, char ity at home and abroad, and above all, an honest medium of ex change. Nor is it to question the need for government to protect the Iives and the property of peaceful citizens against fraud and violence. What is debatable. is the use of governmental coercion to displace the market as the con verter of scarce and valuable re sources to the most efficient serv ice of peaceful human desires.

The Role of Private Property The multiplication of people and their desires accentuates the demand upon available resources, calling for the enclosure of what was once the commons. In other words, there is an increased role for private ownership and an added importance of property rights to bring clean air, pure water, and increasingly scarce re sources of all types under the in fluence of voluntary supply and demand in the open market. The mistake in this connection is the unwarranted assumption that new or additional laws are needed to do the job. Or, worse yet, the assumption that the in creasing scarcity of a resource, relative to the demand for it, justifies bringing all available supplies under government owner ship or control. In other words, if air or water or land or oil or any other resource seems to be in rela tively short supply, then national ize the supply and treat it as if it were a free good or costless in the market as far as the consumer is concerned; the cost is there, all the same, but is to be charged to taxpayers in general rather than directly to each consumer. Thus, the consumption of the scarce re source is subsidized and encour aged, whereas the producer of that resource is discouraged through total or partial confiscation of his 410 THE FREEMAN July property. That is the general na ture .of the mistake: the resort to coercive measures in the attempt to do a job which can only be ac complished through the peaceful procedures of the market.

How Market System Functions to Avoid Waste The market recognizes the need and provides handsome rewards for specialists in the production and conservation and use of scarce resources. If there were no moral or other justification for private property, the foregoing alone would be ample and sufficient rea son for it - the avoidance of waste. This is the same reason for all specialization and all exchange. And the lack of respect for private property is the basic reason why compulsory socialism is bound to fail - why it can neither detect waste nor avoid it, however harsh be the treatment of individuals. Instead of allowing persons to specialize as producers or savers or responsible users of scarce and limited resources in market fash ion, socialism in effect compels everyone to serve as teacher, mail carrier, transporter, physician, supplier of utilities, lawyer, in surer, banker, philanthropist, and printer of fiat money. What waste of human talent, to say nothing of the other scarce resources squan dered in such warlike processes!

This is the great mistake we make when we. refuse to tolerate the errors of self-responsible individ uals and socialize such errors in stead. If it is education we desire, let us look to specialists in the open market rather than to the coercive process by which the policeman is to make every taxpayer a teacher. Perhaps some of the specialists will make mistakes; but such er rors, primarily at the individual's own expense, are far more toler able than when socialized. In similar fashion, the market may be trusted to provide the best transportation, communication, recreation, business service of all types, chari ties, and even the best money that can be had within the limits of available resources and human understanding. Among fal lible men, we may expect some mistakes. Perhaps we can learn to tolerate them, for there is no other chance to be free. ~ The Need forToleranc 1 Robert A. Nisbet, "Conflicting Aca demic Loyalties", in Improving College Teaching, Calvin B. T. Lee, Editor, (American Council on Education, Wash ington, D. C., 1967), pp. 12-13.