Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

13Freedom?As I read and listen to what people say about the merits ofthe market system, whether in scholarly publication or theheat of argument, a key claim is that it gives a society notonly efficiency but freedom.To determine the attributes of the market system thatbear on freedom or liberty, we had first better say somethingabout what these great words mean. Even in the most tyrannicalof societies, life showers everyone with more freedomsor liberties than can be counted. We are all free to docountless things of little or no impact on others: to sing toourselves or do push-ups. But mere numbers of liberties arenot enough to qualify a person as free. Some important freedoms,such as free speech or choice of occupation, are required.On the other hand, some severe impositions on ourchoices are not counted by most people as deprivations offreedom. Most people believe that a person is free even if heis legally compelled to pay taxes, free even if conscripted forthe military. Aware that we are all controlled by family,market, state, and other interactions, we draw distinctions.Some controls are judged to be consistent with freedom,others not.Clearly, then, to say that a person is free is not just tostate a simple fact, such as height or hair color. It is to saythat, controlled as we are in many ways, choices judged tobe important or valuable are not closed off. Which choices,then, are valuable or important? Opinions differ. And thosedifferences send the analysis of freedom or liberty into a