Creating Positive Liberty

Posted by Robert Sharp Jun 30, 2006

My discussion with pink101 in this thread led me to wonder about what kind of government interference is acceptable in the name of positive liberty. In this liberty article, I wrote that creating positive liberties often requires the state to sacrifice negative liberties. The example from the thread is public education, which is a public good and a positive liberty. Right now, the American system provides numerous grants for people who are too poor to send their children to college. These grants are paid for out of tax dollars, which are forcibly taken from people who earn a living. In other words, taxes are a limitation on negative liberty, our ability to make our own choices without government interference.

The question is not only whether this is acceptable, but where we should draw the line. I think most would agree that a child born into a poor family is a victim of luck. It would be unfair to deprive that child of an opportunity to education just because of circumstances. But what other things is such a child lacking? What about food? Welfare provides for that to some degree, but is welfare a good system? What about entertainment? Should a poor child be given a bicycle? Video games?

Just where do we draw the line on how much aid the government should provide in order to equalize our positive liberties, in order to allow us to lead the kind of lives that most people take for granted? Some would say we should not provide ANY such liberties. That is the libertarian approach, oddly enough. Libertarians focus on negative liberties, on making government as small as possible. This would eliminate things like seat belt laws, but it would also eliminate welfare. People would be left to fend for themselves. Maybe that is as it should be. Perhaps people SHOULD learn to fend for themselves; perhaps they will be stronger for it. In any case, these are the kinds of questions every state must face, and a good citizen should understand the issues at hand in order to make informed judgments about our government.