When Voting Makes No Sense; T. Machan

There never seems to be an end to people who love wagging their fingers at us. Election year is another opportunity for them to indulge in this vigorous exercise. But are they right? Should we really feel so bad if we do not vote? Is it so irresponsible to stay home or go fishing on election day? Let me answer this somewhat personally. As a naturalized citizen I always vote. Even when I spent a couple of Novembers working in Europe, I wrote for ballots and made sure they got back in time. I am a dutiful voter, indeed. But it takes its toll. For me to have any con fidence in my repeated political acts, I have had to become a full-time political person. In my life politics is virtually everything. I am certainly a man without hobbies. I barely have time for my family and I am able to keep up with my profession only because it largely revolves around studying politics. For someone to have any reasonable confi dence of being a good voter-to do this task in good conscience-one has to prepare for voting in a relentless, demanding fashion. In my case this has meant seeking out the best po litical principles and then voting in the way that most effectively supports these principles. This requires extensive study-not just reading the newspaper, following the candidates' records, Tibor R. Machan teaches philosophy at Auburn University, Alabama.

examining the various referenda, knowing the persons likely to accompany the candidate to office, and so on. Most importantly it requires keeping one's mind on some very big ques tions, such as "What is justice?" "Is freedom more important than security?" "What is best for a human community?" "How far should democracy go in a country?" Can you imagine someone being a competent, conscientious voter who has not given thought to these issues? I cannot. But there is more to our problem. The task of voting in an era of omnipresent government is unbelievably demanding. It is doubtful that one per cent of those who go to the polls have made a real effort to understand all the issues. How could they? It is certainly not their fault that in order to be politically savvy one needs to be almost omniscient. The people we send to office are embarking on missions best undertaken by the Almighty. They have to decide on issues ranging from what fish need to be preserved to where to build the next interstate highway; from how best to fight AIDS to whether surrogate motherhood for pay should be permitted; from whether a judge is suited to sit on the Supreme Court to how much subsidy money the tobacco farmers of North Carolina should receive; from how many helicopters Angolan freedom fighters need to how to control trading on the New York Stock Exchange. And this only at the Federal level!

Because government is now involved in so many things, and politicians have to make so many complicated decisions, every politician 384 THE FREEMAN. OCTOBER 1988 must possess an incredible array of knowledge, talent, and skills. There is no job description that fits such people-if we can find them. Can anyone feel totally confident about voting for one over the other? The Scope of Government One reason I suspect the Founding Fathers and framers tried to build a society with a lim ited government wasn't that they worried about the size of government. It's the scope of gov ernment that matters. They meant for all the people to participate in the affairs of govern ment, so they wanted those affairs to be rela tively specific. That is one very good reason to limit the power of government. In the market we can judge the baker, restaurateur, dentist, carpet cleaner, or banker, and, if we deem their work inferior, we can go elsewhere. In govern ment, however, we have to cast a vote for people whom we cannot judge, since we have little idea about what they will do; and even if we have some inkling, we have few skills to judge them at their tasks.

So if you stay home on election day, don't feel guilty. The guilty ones are those who have turned our governments into busybody institu tions that have acquired tasks and powers no one can keep an eye or mind on, let alone eval uate. Unlimited government is incompatible with representative democracy. 0 The Political Process L egislatures, laws, courts, constabularies, bureaucracies can do little more than exert a mild influence along lines consistent with the current consensus. The consensus moves this way or that in accord with its content; it rises when filled with truths and virtues and sinks when bogged down with nonsense. So, what I can do about the government depends upon the quality of the ideas I feed.into the consensus. This de fines both my limitation and my potentiality. -LEONARDE. READ IDEAS ON LIBERTY 385 Capitalism and the Jews by Milton Friedman Editors' Note: "Capitalism and the Jews" was originally presented as a lecture before the Mont Pelerin Society in 1972. It subsequently was published in England and Canada and ap pears here without significant revision.