I Don't Know; W. Cage

This attitude of ((I don't know" is basic in the formation of a free econ omy and a free society. I don't know how to: live your life, manage your finances, or make your decisions. And because 1 don't know, 1 don't even try! The result is a free society in which everyone makes his own decisions about how he will spend I DON'T KNOW 99 his time, use his talents, and allo cate his material wealth. It encom passes more than just economics. You can choose not only your voca tion but also your spouse; your own brand of coffee and your own ubrand" of religion; where you will work and even if you will work. The entire list of civil liberties stems from the same source as our economic liberties-the willingness to admit ~~I don't know." I don't know if my religious de nomination has Uthe truth," so you choose your own church. I don't know if my opinion on a subject is correct, so you speak your mind as well. I don't know if you should be an engineer, a poet, or a banker, so you choose for yourself. When people choose for themselves, we have a free market and a free society.

But there has to be an essential humility, a recognition of our own limited knowledge. Each of us must admit that ~1 don't know" before we can have a viable, free society. And there lies the difficulty. The Urge to Control Almost everyone would publicly acknowledge that he is incapable of directing other people's lives. How ever, deep inside, a lot of us seem to believe that we do have the knowl edge and wisdom to control others. In fact, recorded history is an on going account of people who thought they did know how to organize their society. From the kings who ruled by divine right to the feu dal lords who totally directed the economic and social activities of their peasants; from the crusaders who were out to win the hearts and minds of men (and to kill them if that failed) to the Hitlers, Stalins, and Idi Amins of this century-all are classic cases of people who would not admit UI don't know." And the classic cases aren't all. The historic listing of truly free markets and societies is about as short as the list of government agencies that have voluntarily disbanded.

The institution that works against liberty is government. Government is the only agency that can rely on coercion instead of cooperation, and if coercion is used it is a pretty good sign that the people coerced did not act of their own choosing! When government goes beyond its peace-keeping functions, both internationally and domesti cally, it is in essence saying (~I know!" It knows: • how your home should be con structed (even if it doubles the cost by using outdated methods); • what education you should re ceive (even if it means you will forever read and write at a third-grade level); • how much you should pay for gasoline (even if none is avail able at that price); 100 THE FREEMAN February • what wage you should earn (even if you can't find a job at that wage); • what you should and should not read, eat and watch on TV, what countries you shouldn't visit, and what foreign products you should be allowed to pur chase.

Government, once it exceeds its es sential duties, will strive to organize our economic life and our total soci ety because it thinks it has the an swers, the knowledge, the truth. But people are not inclined to ac cept government as the possessor of all knowledge. As a result, the peo ple must be ~~persuaded." The tradi tional form of persuasion was the point of a sword or the muzzle of a rifle. Modern governments, though, are too advanced to use such out right force. They use the carrot in stead of the stick. We no longer resist government restrictions, regulations, controls, prescriptions, and proscriptions for the simple rea son that we have been bought off! We have discovered the secret that kings tried to hide for centuries: it is a lot easier to live off the public purse than it is to work. Wards of the Government People throughout the economy now depend on government for some or all of their livelihood. Govern ment funds provide welfare pay ments, program and project grants, contracts for services and equip ment, and even direct employment to a growing proportion of our population. In addition, many busi nesses rely on federal, state, or municipal agencies to effectively eliminate competition.

Consider what has happened. Item: In 1955, government spend ing was about 30 per cent of our national income. Twenty years la ter, that proportion had risen to 44 per cent. The government now spends nearly as much of our income as we do! Item: Although it is difficult to ar rive at a precise estimate, today somewhere between 35 per cent and 40 per cent of the entire U.S.popula tion (not just the work force) receive some or all of their income from government. That is actually less than it might be: someone cal culated that our country passed the point of no return in 1972 because in that year more than half of the population became eligible for some type of government aid, program, or project. Item: Professions of all kinds rely on government restrictions to re duce the number of competitors. The same is true of businesses. A leading business publication recently re ferred to an airline company which is suing the Civil Aeronautics Board· for insufficient regulation. The air line is apparently unhappy because, 1979 I DON'T KNOW 101 as it stated in its annual report, the CAB's policy is to grant any fit, willing and able carrier any route for which it applies!

In short, we have sold our free dom. We have been increasingly willing to acknowledge the govern ment's ttsuperior" knowledge in ex change for a few dollars. This has occurred despite the government's demonstrated ignorance and incom petence in delivering mail, operat ing schools, and even in handing out money. We have allowed govern ment to claim ttl know" as long as it also says ttHere's your share." Our Freedom in Jeopardy The government expansion has been largely concentrated in the economic sphere, and that is where the effects of false claims to knowl edge have shown up the most strongly. But our political and civil liberties are not far from jeopardy. As the government increasingly claims to know how energy should be used, it will at some point have to decide whose printing presses will be allowed to run. Is it likely that newspapers which are critical of the national energy policy will get as much electricity to run their presses as will be granted to the pa pers which support the policy? Who will be allowed to travel-lecturers who criticize the government or the bureaucrats who carry out govern ment policies? Will art books have the same energy claim as the annual report of the Department of Energy?

What churches will be allocated enough fuel oil to heat their sanctuaries? The brief appearance of Miss Lib erty came as a result of recognizing that no one person, no group, no agency possessed the knowledge to run the economy and society. Her visit brought forth all of the benefits of freedom: high living standards as creative and productive energies were unleashed; a wide variety of lifesty les as people pursued high (and low) purposes; a concern for the welfare of others, voluntarily sup ported through private charities; and technical and intellectual ad vances in knowledge which would have been inconceivable even to Jules Verne. All of this from our simply saying, t1 don't know." But now, at least for the present, the temptation of living off of the public purse seems too great to re sist. We let the government claim to be all-knowing in exchange for the low-grade security of government providing and protection. However, knowledge-or lack of it-will ultimately surface. When govern ment finally is overwhelmed by its own ignorance, when we finally say once again, ttl don't know," then our free market economy and free soci ety will allow the human spirit to reach new heights. @ Clarence B. Carson 26. The Cold War: The Spread of Gradualism GRADDALISM is a power theory, too, as communism is. That is, it is a theory for the gaining and exercis ing of power. It is a theory of gaining power by the use of the force of government to redistribute the wealth and establish substantive equality. It is a theory of holding and exercising power by continually promising more and more benefits and ever extending the sway of gov ernment.