The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 THE PRODUCTIVITY OF FREEDOM 569almost the oldest example of governmentalintervention in theUnited States - regulation of railroads- and that which today getsthe most financial outlay - agriculture?The results are less thanbrilliant, scarcely models for the"good society." One reason for thelack of success in these cases isthat governmental activity hasimposed restrictions on freedomrather than enlisting freedomincombination with those thingswhich government has to offer.One advantage of prosperity isthat it frees us from the need toworry about small economic problems.Many details of governmentspending are just that, small andunimportant. But many are not.The quality of the decisions mustinfluence profoundly the quality ofsociety. In the words of one of history'sgreatest economists, AlfredMarshall:Government is the most preciousof human possessions; and no carecan be too great to be spent on enablingit to do its work in the bestway: a chief condition to that end isthat it should not be set to work forwhich it is not specially qualified,under the conditions of time andplace. ®Reprints available, 10¢ eachSupporters of SchemesIDEAS ONLIBERTYTHE HARD-WORKED and over-burdened who form the great majority,and still more the incapables perpetually helped who are everled to look for more help, are ready supporters of schemes whichpromise them this or the other benefit by State-agency, and readybelievers of those who tell them that such benefits can be given,and ought to be given. They listen with eager faith to all buildersof political air-castles, from Oxford graduates down to Irish irreconcilables;and every additional tax-supported appliance fortheir welfare raises hopes of further ones. Indeed the more numerouspublic instrumentalities become, the more is there generatedin citizens the notion that everything is to be done for them, andnothing by them. Each generation is made less familiar with theattainment of desired ends by individual actions or private combinations,and more familiar with the attainment of them bygovernmental agencies; until, eventually, governmental agenciescome to be thought of as the only available agencies.HERBERT SPENCER, The Man Versus The State, 1884