The Economic Freedoms We Still Need

Only in retrospect is it apparent how many economic freedoms we've lost - especially in recent decades. But how to respond, as special interests and legislators alike continue to place limits on our personal agency? 

In particular, consider how we seek to participate in the economy - not just as consumers, but as producers. As producers, we get the chance to experience economic freedom via active and meaningful roles with others. Consequently, the personal agency that derives from active use of skills potential, is more important for personal identity than is sometimes recognized. 

Our active participation in society is vital to innovation possibilities in both our physical and intellectual environments. However, realizing the potential of innovation, also requires that individuals keep a full range of production rights, so that such rights are not constantly diverted to preferred groups and associations. Not only do we need to protect permissions for personal management of physical resources, but also the necessary permissions which allow us to assist others through the use and application of knowledge. 

For that matter, our extent of personal freedom as producers and consumers, affects our ability to retain knowledge. In a recent study the authors discovered that people learn more readily when the relevant material is freely chosen. Despite the fact this education comes with a given bias, the bias framing lends greater meaning to the actions we choose. Indeed, according to the study, "the learning rates were slower in the forced-choice situation than they were in the free-choice one."

The economic freedoms that individuals need in their roles as producers and consumers, are crucial if societies expect to preserve a full range of economic access for all concerned. Production rights matter for ongoing activities which are practical and necessary, but also those which are aspirational and experiential. Perhaps one of the simplest ways to think about production rights is to consider a broader context in which economic freedom is possible. The simplest approach for me in this regard, is to envision how economic freedoms could contribute to the societal processes of maintenance, building, creating, understanding and healing. 

Maintenance is the foundation which supports all the others. From an economic standpoint, sometimes we struggle to maintain economic complexity, since maintenance activities in certain respects are the least compensated of the entire group. Yet even though some maintenance activities are basic in nature, they make it possible to sustain everything else, not only in terms of knowledge and information, but also our physical realities. When we lose crucial economic freedoms at a foundational level, our personal autonomy tends to be compromised in areas of higher levels of economic complexity as well. 

As lower level economic freedoms have been lost, so too society's ability to successfully engage in the higher activities of healing and mutual understanding. Only consider how activities in this regard could otherwise bring the actions of healing to a higher order in terms of positive societal intentions. Even our abilities to build and create are being blunted, and basic healing options are in disarray. In all of this: When people insist that intentions mostly lead to negative outcomes, only recall that intentions always begin at individual and personal levels, and they are both positive and negative in nature. It is only when positive intentions are disallowed, that the inevitable negative intentions societies also hold, come to the fore and gain the upper hand. We need to revive the positive intentions which can protect our economic freedoms, while there is still time to do so.