Ever since I founded The Future of Freedom Foundation, I have never lost hope of achieving a genuinely free society in my lifetime. By “genuine” I do not mean reforming and improving the welfare-warfare state, which has come to be defined as “freedom” within conservative and right-wing libertarian circles. By “genuine” I mean the dismantling, not the reform, of all infringements on liberty.
How could this be possible? After all, for all of our lives statism has been so deeply ingrained in American society that achieving the genuinely free society has appeared to be all but impossible. That’s the reason, in fact, why so many libertarians have finally given up and settled for welfare-warfare state reform under the label of “advancing freedom.” But as I have long pointed out, an improved serfdom, while good, is no more freedom than an improved 19th-century slavery would have been freedom.
I have long believed that an unforeseen catalyst could occur that could provide the potential for a cascading effect toward freedom. Once the catalyst begins, the road toward the genuinely free society might begin to open up.
Could the current free-trade controversy be such a catalyst? I don’t know. But it certainly is possible. In all my years as a libertarian, I have never seen such a massive, nationwide outpouring of support for free trade and against tariffs, trade wars, and economic protectionism. That’s one heckuva good sign for libertarianism.
As I stated in my blog yesterday, free trade was certainly not the sentiment in the 1990s when FFF published The Case for Free Trade and Open Immigration and when FFF policy advisor James Bovard published his book The Fair Trade Fraud. But over the past 30 years, it is obvious that the power of ideas on liberty has manifested itself by the way free trade has captured the hearts and minds of a massive number of Americans.
The reason why this free-trade phenomenon could serve as a catalyst for a major advance in the direction of freedom is that since people are seeing the tremendous benefits of free trade, they might well be apt to consider other libertarian solutions to the many woes that Americans are suffering — such as in immigration, the drug war, foreign policy, taxation, money, education, the welfare-warfare state, and others.
As most libertarians know, one of the greatest influences on libertarian thought has been Frédéric Bastiat, the 19th-century French libertarian. One would be hard-pressed to find a better explanation of the principles of free trade than those found in Bastiat’s three books: Political Economy, Economic Sophisms, and Economic Harmonies. Bastiat was one of the first people I came across when I discovered libertarianism in my late 20s. I can still recall my excitement at reading his books for the first time.
While Bastiat succeeded in getting elected to the national parliament, he was a failure in persuading France to adopt free trade. The French people chose to remain mired in economic protectionism.
Over in England, however, things were different. There was a big free-trade movement led by two men — Richard Cobden and John Bright. They too wrote extensively on the virtues of free trade but, unlike Bastiat, their writings have never had the big influence that Bastiat’s writings have had. However, unlike Bastiat, they led England in an extremely successful pro-free trade movement.
I can’t help but think about Cobden and Bright when I see the massive support for free trade all across America today. If they could do it, so can we.
I also can’t help but think about what our American ancestors achieved by the time the period from 1880-1910 arrived. Imagine: No income tax or IRS, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education grants, corporate bailouts, school vouchers, welfare state, gun control, drug laws, (minimal) immigration controls, foreign wars in Asia and Europe, national-security state, Pentagon, CIA, NSA, FBI, torture, state-sponsored assassinations, foreign renditions, war on terrorism, (minimal) public (i.e., government) schooling, paper money, Federal Reserve, SEC, AFT, minimum wage, economic regulations, and so much more.
Those American generations proved what can be done. If they could do it, so can we. We can achieve what they achieved and build on it. If statists could succeed in moving America in a statist direction, we can do the same in a freedom direction. But it entails a deep faith in the power of ideas on liberty, a quest for a genuinely free society, and a strict adherence to libertarian principles.
Can the pro-free trade phenomenon be a catalyst for achieving a genuinely free society? You bet it can! America can yet lead the world to freedom.
