Who Said What About Liberty (quiz)

2. "Laissez faire, laissez passer." 3. "Taxation without representation is tyr anny." 4. "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil;in itsworst state, an intolerable one." 5. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." 6. "Liberty is the mother of virtue, and if women be, by their very constitution, slaves, and not allowed to breathe the sharp invigo rating air of freedom, they must ever languish like exotics, and be reckoned beautiful flaws of nature." 7. "The State, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely antisocial. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficultof access, and has invariably held itself above justice .and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing."

8. "God helps them that helps themselves." 9. "It is the highest impertinence and pre sumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense.... They are themselves always,and without any 424 The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, New York 10533 Tel. (914) 591-7230 Fax (914) 591-8910 E-mail: freeman@westnet.com July 1997 The Market: The Only Trustworthy Pollster U nder the heading "What People Really Want," the May 3 issue of The Economistreports results of a recent British poll. Among the allegedly genuine desires of British citizens are high er taxes ("to keep down inflation") as well as greater government expenditures on health, education, and welfare. Most Britons apparently also want to ban fox hunting, but few wish to legalize marijua na. Hogwash. Even the most scrupulously conducted poll cannot discover "what peo ple really want." I don't doubt that this Economistpoll is as sound a poll as has ever been conducted. But polls by their nature cannot uncover what people want in an economically relevant sense.

The verb "to want" has two different meanings. This difference is linguistically slight but economically weighty. Insensi tivity to this difference in meaning causes confusion-including being misled into thinking that polls elicit reliable informa tion on what people want. Let me illustrate this dual meaning of the verb "to want" with a personal exam ple. I want a new Lexus automobile. No lie; I really want a new Lexus. As used here, the verb" to want" means nothing more than a fancy or a whim. If I tell you in idle con versation that I want a new Lexus, all this pronouncement means is that if I could acquire a Lexus at little or no cost to myself, I'd happily acquire one. This first meaning of the verb" to want" refers to unconstrained wanting. It refers to the wishes and dreams that we each have, not only for material possessions, but for all manner of worldly and spiritual outcomes. (In addition to wanting a Lexus, I also genuinely want world peace, univer sal free trade, an end to human suffering, good weather, a Super Bowl victory for the New Orleans Saints, .... my list is end less.) We all want lots of things if they are available to us personally at a zero or near zero price-that is, if there are no con straints on our acquiring these things. Sim ilarly, we all want lots of good things that are simply unobtainable in unlimited quantities.

While linguistically sound, using the word "want" in its unconstrained meaning risks profound economic misunderstand ing. The second and more reliable meaning of "to want" is its economically relevant meaning. To want something in an eco nomically relevant sense is to be willing to pay full price for that something. I'm unwilling to pay the $50,000+ necessary to acquire a new Lexus. Under the economi cally relevant ("constrained") definition of the verb" to want," I do not want a Lexus. While I (like most Americans) could afford a Lexus if I dramatically reduced my spending on food, clothing, entertainment, etc., I prefer to drive a less luxurious car so that I can eat something other than cab bage soup at every meal. In fact, I actually want a 1992 Toyota Camry-for that is what I drive. The Camry is not as nice a car as the Lexus, but it is priced right for me and my family. What has all this parsing of the meaning of "to want" to do with citizen polls? Plen ty.

When someone is asked by a pollster if he wants, say, more welfare payments, this person responds free of charge. No matter what response he gives, he bears no mater ial consequences of that response. Of course, the person might understand that greater welfare payments would mean higher taxes for him, but he also under stands that his response to a poll question does not alone determine government wel fare policy. Because government's welfare policy is not determined by the opinion of any individual, no individual incurs any personal cost in answering a question about such policies one way or another. In other words, polls uncover only unconstrained wants-wants that people have independent of the costs of express ing these wants. Compare the following two scenarios. First, you're asked in a poll whether or not you want your city to build a subway sys tem. Second, you're asked by a Lexus deal er if you want to purchase a new Lexus.

Your answer to the first question changes nothing. Whether or not the subway sys tem is built is independent of your answer. Therefore, you will likely be much more cavalier in answering such a question. Your answer is without consequence. But you bear significant personal conse quences when answering the question posed by the Lexus dealer. If you say "yes, I'd like to buy this new Lexus," you commit yourself contractually to buy an expen sive automobile. If you say "no," you do not commit yourself. Either way, your answer has immediate and personal conse quences for you. Your answer matters; it determines directly whether or not you purchase the car. As a result, you answer the Lexus dealer's question carefully and prudently. If you're not wealthy, you like ly will say "no." You might tell the Lexus dealer that you really like the car, and that if it were less expensive you might buy one. But at its current high price, you do not now want a new Lexus.

So when British citizens claim in a poll to "want" such things as greater welfare disbursements and continued police efforts to prevent adults from smoking pot, these answers do not mean that British citizens "want" these things in the same way that I want my 1992 Toyota or the bag of groceries that I just purchased. Such poll results reveal only Britons' unconstrainedwants, not their economically relevant ("constrained") wants. Because opinion polls do not reveal people's constrainedwants, it is illegitimate to use polls to guide government policy making. But what are elections if not polls? In elections as in polls, no individual's vote determines policy outcomes. Therefore, voters typically vote with far less prudence and shrewdness than they use when buy ing groceries or choosing a plumber. What people really want-in an economically meaningful sense-is revealed only through private market transactions where each person directly confronts the full costs of expressing his desires. In contrast, no poll or election reveals genuine wants constrained by costs. Only the market reveals genuine wants; therefore, only the market can be trusted to respond to peo ple's real demands.

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Flying his own plane, he visits and entertains college classes and adult audi ences throughout the country. He believes that only the educated can be free. Published by The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Irvington-an-Hudson, NY 10533 ISBN 1-57246-066-0 • 258 pages • paperback $14.95 To order, call (800) 452-3518 orfax (914) 591-8910 exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society." 10. "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." 11. "Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits." 12. "There's no such thing as a free lunch." 13. "The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not." 14. "Capitalism is the only system that can be defended and validated by reason." 15. "In the political democracy only the votes cast for the majority candidate or the majority plan are effective in shaping the course of affairs. The votes polled by the minority do not directly influence policies.

But on the market no vote is cast in vain. Every penny spent has the power to work upon the production processes. The publish ers cater not only to the majority bypublishing detective stories, but also to the minority reading lyrical poetry and philosophical tracts. The bakeries bake bread not only for healthy people, but also for the sick on special diets. . . . The rich cast more votes than the poorer citizens. But this inequality is itself the outcome of a previous voting process. To be rich, in a market economy, is the outcome of success in filling best the demands of the consumers." 16. "The art of economics consists in look ing not merely at the immediate but at the 425 longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups." 17. "So-called 'social justice' should never be confused with humanitarianism. From a humanitarian viewpoint, it is infinitely more important to have a prosperous economy, in which the great masses of the people are beyond the reach of hunger and malnutrition, and beyond.the reach of poverty-related dis eases, than to stifle a relative handful of speciallyskilled or talented people who might be envied."

18. "Anything that's peaceful." 19. "Freedom is not empowerment. Em powerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery~ hay and a barn for human cattle. There's only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the con sequences." 20. "For the libertarian, the main task of the present epoch is to cast off his needless and debilitating pessimism, to set his sights on long-run victory and to set about the road to its attainment ... proceed in the spirit of radical long-run optimism."

Answers appear on page 455.