On Freedom and Equality- A Preface to Public Choice Theory

As the world's single most powerful country, the United States claims itself to be a lot of things. Fair, peaceful, and free, it is the icon and envy of every other country in the world, regardless of whether they admit it or not. This was, at least, the impression that I had as a citizen of China and it is still my impression after living in the United States for what has now been the majority of my life.

However, for all its gusto, the United States is not all that it claims to be. More specifically, I wish to focus on the claim that it provides both equality and freedom. This is nothing new. Everyone know that in America, we are all born with certain "unalienable rights" and that we have the the right to "freedom, liberty, and pursuit of happiness," blah blah blah, all that good stuff.

The problem is, however, that equality and freedom are the complete antithesis of each other, mutually exclusive in their absolutes. This fact is immediately clear upon consideration from an economic perspective. If a government engages in wealth redistribution, in other words the pursuit of equality, it by definition must rob another person of the freedom to use that wealth. This fact holds also from a political standpoint. For an example, we look to slavery, which has guaranteed a social equality of races while limiting our freedom to discriminate and enslave.

One interesting thing about the previous examples is that it shows that freedom and equality both have their uses in different contexts. For this reason, I qualified my original statement saying that equality and freedom are only mutually exclusive in their absolutes. Absolute equality is a scary thing. We call it communism (and everyone hates communism). Absolute freedom is likewise a scary thing. Pure freedom is simply anarchy with a pretty name.

So in the end, the claim that equality and freedom both exist in America is not false, simply misleading. Though they both exist, simply know that they are not compliments to each other and that increased equality comes at the cost of decreased freedom. Government seeks not to guarantee both, it seeks to mediate two opposing forces. As such, an analysis of freedom and equality must exist at a very basic level and cannot be applied at a level like that of an entire country.

Keep all of this in mind when you read my next post about public choice theory.