October

THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY FEATURES 588 590 595 597 598 602 607 610 613 615 620 622 625 629 632 Center 593 604 642 586 644 Free Trade to Benefit the Many-Not Fair Trade to Benefit the Few by Dwight R. Lee Better choices for consumers and improved economic productivity. Entitlements Versus Investments: A Parable by George C. Leef The dangers of "free" government goods and services. Transit's Transition from Socialism by Daniel B. Klein, Adrian T. Moore, and Binyam Reja A property rights framework based on curb rights. Slugging It Out by C. Daniel Bradford An ingenious solution to commuter woes. Letters from Russia by Dennis L. Peterson A pen pal's views of problems and opportunities in the new Russia. Reflections on a Failure by Donald G. Smith The death of socialism. A Century of Forest Service Ineptitude by John A. Baden and Andrew C. St. Lawrence Our glorious experiment in "sylvan socialism."

Cast a Giant Ballot by Clifford R Thies The story of Roger MacBride. Affirmative Action: Institutionalized Inequality by Walter Block and Timothy Mulcahy To overcome discrimination, look to the market. Capitalism and Cooperation by Allan Levite A vitallin1c Education and the Free Society by Linda C. Raeder Recapturing the academy-and rebuilding civil society. The Proper Attitude Toward the Proper Role of the State by Joseph S. Fulda A reminder of the need for eternal vigilance. Algernon Sidney: Forgotten Founding Father by Chris Baker An English martyr for republican government. The Legal Assault on Competence and Honesty by David R. Henderson Thoughts on Walter Olson's new book, The Excuse Factory. Benjamin Constant-Liberty and Private Life by Jim Powell A defender of the individual and foe of collectivism. COLUMNS NOTES from FEE-A Free-Market Case Against Open Immigration? by Donald J. Boudreaux IDEAS and CONSEQUENCES-How We'll Know When We've Won by Lawrence W Reed POTOMAC PRINCIPLES-Medicine for the Sick by Doug Bandow ECONOMICS on TRIAL-Preaching to the Choir by Mark Skousen DEPARTMENTS Perspective-Merrill Gee Book Reviews -The Cross and the Rain Forest: A Critique of Radical Green Spirituality by Robert Whelan, Joseph Kirwan, and Paul Haffner, reviewed by Ken Ewert; The Economic Laws of Scientific Research by Terence Kealey,reviewedby George C. Leef; PBS: Behind the Screen by Laurence Jarvik, reviewedby William H. Peterson; Faith of Our Fathers edited by Mary Sennholz, reviewedby Norman S. Ream.

THEFREEMAN IDEAS ON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 E-mail: freeman@westnet.com FEE Home Page: http://www.fee.org President: Donald J. Boudreaux Managing Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Guest Editor: Dwight R. Lee EditorEmeritus Paul L. Poirot Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Book Review Editor George C. Leef Adjunct Professor of Law and Economics, Northwood University EditorialAssistant Mary Ann Murphy Columnists Doug Bandow Cato Institute, Washington, D.C. Lawrence W. Reed Mackinac Center for Public Policy Midland, Michigan Mark Skousen Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida ContributingEditors Charles W. Baird California State University, Hayward Peter J. Boettke New York University Clarence B. Carson American Textbook Committee Wadley, Alabama Thomas J. DiLorenzo Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland Joseph S. Fulda New York, New York Bettina Bien Greaves Resident Scholar, FEE John Hospers University of Southern California Tibor R. Machan Auburn University Ronald Nash Reformed Theological Seminary Edmund A. Opitz Chatham, Massachusetts James L. Payne Sandpoint, Idaho Jim Powell Westport, Connecticut William H. Peterson Adjunct Scholar, Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Sheldon Richman The Future of Freedom Foundation Jane S. Shaw PERC, Bozeman, Montana Richard H. Timberlake University of Georgia The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. FEE, established in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, is a nonpolitical, educational champion of private property, the free market, and limited government. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Copyright © 1997 by The Foundation for Economic Education. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue, except "Benjamin Constant," provided credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to FEE. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through dona tions, which are invited in any amount. Donors of $30.00or more receive a subscription to The Freeman. Student subscriptions are $10.00 for the nine-month academic year; $5.00 per semester. A~ditional copies of this issue of The Freeman are $3.00 each. For foreign delivery,a donation of $45.00 a year is suggested to cover mailing costs. ' Bound volumes of The Freemanare availablefrom The Foundation for calendar years 1972 to date. The Freeman is available in microform from University Microfilms,300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI48106.

PERSPECTIVE A Note on Jane Austen and the Importance of Freedom We are in the midst of a Jane Austen revival. Several recent films based on her novels have been hits with both critics and the movie-going public. Many readers are discov ering-or rediscovering-the wit and quiet charm of her prose. Jane Austen appeals to us because her novels so realistically depict the life of the upper middle classes in early nineteenth century England. An Austen novel may be compared to a Vermeer painting-rendered scrupulously from real life, with great atten tion to even the most minute detail. For example, Miss Austen never records a con versation between men alone without at least one woman present in the room. She appar ently felt that women had no idea what men talked about when they were alone and hence was careful not to relate such exchanges. Miss Austen's works can also be exasper ating. One wonders how such delightful, wise, and witty heroines can be the offspring of such vain, silly, and inept parents. In her last completed novel, Persuasion, we find Anne Elliot, one of the most perceptive and reso lute of Miss Austen's heroines. Anne's father, Sir Walter Elliot, on the other hand, is vanity personified. The only reading he has done in years is the entry about himself in the baronetage-an entry that is there, not for anything he himself has accomplished, but due to his inheritance. His greatest concern is facial wrinkles-how to eradicate his own and how to tolerate their appearance in others.

Emma Woodhouse, the heroine of Emma, is one of Austen's less prepossessing heroines. But compared with her father she is a model of intellectual brilliance and conversational eloquence. Mr. Woodhouse is capable of little else than moaning about his susceptibility to disease. Elizabeth Bennett, in Pride and Prejudice, is Miss Austen's most popular heroine-and deservedly so. Her lively perspicacity and moral fortitude are the envy of almost every reader who has enjoyed her story. And her parents? Her father, Mr. Bennett, is depicted 586 ---------~--PERSPECTIVE as a near-recluse, driven to the shelter of his library because of his embarrassing wife. While Elizabeth Bennett is the model of intelligence and virtue, her mother is the epitome of shallowness and emptyheaded vanity. Jane Austen herself was aware of the irony presented by the differences between parent and child and tried in several of her books to explain it. Hence, Anne Elliot rises above her father in character partially due to the solic itous care and concern of her patroness, Lady Russell. Emma is described as having had a wonderful governess. Elizabeth Bennett spent much time inthe library with her father, apparently learning much from both books and Mr. Bennett. But having a fine mentor or a remarkable teacher is probably not the whole answer.

The real explanation lies in the fact that these young heroines are, in their own way, as resourceful and as disciplined as any entre preneur. Indeed, one distasteful aspect of Jane Austen's art for many readers is the almost businesslike way in which her charac ters approach the prospects of marriage. But the best of her heroines have prepared them selves with as much care and forethought as anyone ever starting a great enterprise. Her heroines have, for the most part, mastered literature and languages; they are wonderful in conversation and in writing; they can play musical instruments; they are at least competent in a variety of sports and horse back riding; they are accomplished needle women; and they have thoroughly mastered the rather difficultsocial dances of their day. These young women are in the real world, the world of competition, of hopes, of chances. But the framework of this mannerly world is artificial. Even though there are dashing soldiers aplenty, we seldom see even a hint of violence in Jane Austen. For a more complete picture we must go to the Scottish novels of Jane Austen's contemporary, Sir Walter Scott. Therein we witness the violence that maintains the artificial world so charmingly depicted byJane Austen. But the result of that artificiality, so carefully removed from the violence and threat of violence that maintains it, is decay. And that·is faithfully recorded by the ever-observant Miss Austen.

After our heroes and heroines have mar ried, they have little in their artificial worlds to challenge them. They sit and they talk; they playwhist; they call on neighbors; they discuss politics, the weather, and, mostly, the neigh bors. Above all, they remember and reminisce about what they once could do. In a word, they cease to be Anne Elliot, Emma Woodhouse, and Elizabeth Bennett and degenerate into Mr. Elliot, Mr. Wood house, and Mrs. Bennett. How discouraging to think that the miraculous Miss Elizabeth Bennett might sink into the emptyheadedness of Mrs. Bennett once she marries and be comes Mrs. Darcy, mistress of the great estate of Pembroke. In Jane Austen's world, the only real way to obtain a good livelihood was through inher itance, marriage, or to wrest it from someone else through military triumph. Nowhere do we find people advancing in society by entrepre neurial activity by meeting the real needs of people.

English society was to change greatly dur ing the first half of the nineteenth century. With greater personal freedom came an in crease in opportunity. The advancing In dustrial Revolution created wealth and the prospect of trade. The subsequent repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 made farming more competitive and ended the sheltered and protected existence for many large land owners. In fiction we tend to view the ending that somehow ensures security for our hero and heroine to the end of their days as the "happy ending." Jane Austen's unforgettable por traits of Mr. Elliot, Mr. Woodhouse, and Mrs. Bennett remind us that a secure life in a stagnant society is not a happy existence. It can bring loss of capacity and character. It can engender hollowness, emptiness, vanity. It may mean livingluxuriously, but being barely alive. It vividlyreminds us how important it is to be free to fail until the day we die.

-MERRILL GEE (Mr.· Gee is an engineer in Salt Lake City.) 587 THEFREEMAN IDEAS ON LIBERTY Free Trade to Benefitthe Many-Not Fair Trade to Benefitthe Few By Dwight R. Lee W hen asked, most politicians claim that they favor free trade. But they quickly add the qualification that it must also be fair trade, which generally means that we should open our markets to another country's prod ucts only if their markets are equally open to our products. This qualification makes sense politically because people are easily con vinced that it makes sense economically. Why should we give other countries the opportu nity to increase their employment at our expense unless they reciprocate? Unfortu nately, this view misses entirely the real ad vantages of international trade. Furthermore, it reflects a serious political bias that distorts government decisions over a wide range of issues. The advantage from trade with other coun tries does not come from selling more to them than they sell to us so we can create more jobs.