Let's consider what government actually is. In truth, is not government but an institution of compulsion and coercion? - of the negation of liberty? The greatest philosophical error of the 20th century has been to grossly overestimate what can be accomplished by force, compulsion and coercion. Indeed, from the Whigs to the old classical liberals, from Locke to Hume and Smith, the entire focus was on limiting government to its rightful sphere – so that society can breathe free. The critical understanding was that provided by the nascent science of Economics – that Liberty is crucial for economic success. This understanding prevailed right up to the reign of Queen Victoria and the rule of the Gladstonian liberals; and the best example of the political attitude of that great era is provided by the “moralist” Samuel Smiles, whose Self-Help, it is said, outsold the Bible. I quote from the opening sentences of this wonderful and inspiring book, an Indian edition of which, with my foreword, is available from Liberty Institute:
Heaven helps those who help themselves is a well-tried maxim, embodying in a small compass the results of vast human experience. The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigour and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates. Whatever is done for men or classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing for themselves; and where men are subjected to over-guidance and over-government, the inevitable tendency is to render them comparatively helpless.
Even the best institutions can give a man no active help. Perhaps the most they can do is to leave him free to develop himself and improve his individual condition. But in all times men have been prone to believe that their happiness and well-being were to be secured by means of institutions rather than by their own conduct. Hence the value of legislation as an agent in human advancement has usually been much overestimated. Moreover, it is everyday becoming more clearly understood that the function of Government is negative and restrictive rather than positive and active; being resolvable principally into protection – protection of life, liberty and property. Laws, wisely administered, will secure men in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour, whether of mind or body, at a comparatively small personal sacrifice; but no laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober. Such reforms can only be effected by means of individual actions, economy, and self-denial; by better habits, rather than by greater rights.
Thus, the government does not have to “create jobs”; rather, the government has to step aside, so that entrepreneurs can freely open their businesses and employ people. I saw Barack “Il Duce” Obama on television last night calling for a new “jobs bill.” This is an illustration of the gross intellectual errors of our age of over-government. As Samuel Smiles pointed out:
The value of legislation as an agent in human advancement has been much overestimated.
We in India are lucky that our Total Chacha State is such an abject failure that nothing much can be expected from it. The economic advancement of our legions of desperately poor people cannot be accomplished by any “positive” government action, either through legislation or “welfare.” Rather, the government must step aside – so that the poor can help themselves. Today, the agencies of the Total Chacha State are but impediments and predators. As one poor man told me recently in New Delhi:
“Sarkaar ne hamaray raastey mein kaantein bo diye hain.”
(The government has sown thorns in our path.)
Liberty, not government. Liberty is what we all need. This is even more true for the poor.
The serpent of government must be defanged.
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