Economic Freedom Is the Gateway to Political Freedom

Considering both economic theory and the historical record, it is reasonable to believe that if a society tries to abolish the market economy it will find that it abolishes the wealth-generation and long-run growth that only a market system can provide, and, on top of that, it will become more undesirably statist and lead to severe reductions in human freedom.   If people cherish rights of speech, assembly, association, dissent, freedom of choice, freedom of religion, and so on, if they cherish that kind of liberty in general, it can only come about by having private property rights in the means of production – in the printing presses, the bookstores, the communications networks, and in most other scarce resources. They won’t get it when the state, the planning board, the party – whatever you want to call it – is in control of those resources.

When the state, in the name of “the people,” holds exclusive property rights -- a monopoly! -- over those scarce resources, people will be at the mercy of the state officials.   The state officials will now hold ultimate responsibility for what is produced, how things are produced, and for whom things are produced.   It doesn’t matter whether they’re Soviets, North Koreans, or Latin American military dictatorships.   It doesn’t matter what language they speak, what culture they’ve emerged from, what race or gender the individuals themselves may be. In the name of “the people,” the state officials must decide, for example, which authors, which ideas, which books, which magazines and newspapers, are “socially worthy” of production and distribution, and which should not be produced.

In a market system these decisions are given to anybody who owns the means of production – and those private owners of the means of production will stay in control of the means of production only if they serve the demands of consumers. Only in a market system do we see millions of bibles being produced and purchased as well as hundreds of thousands...