Steven Den Beste responds to a reader from Singapore, asking about the price of freedom. Daryl writes:
Compare Singapore to the USA, does Singapore really seem so restrictive? Don't you feel that sometimes liberty is abused to the fullest extent in America? Don't you agree that certain restrictions are necessary, restrictions that aren't in place in the USA?
As part of his response, Steven says:
Capitalism is like that. It gives you the opportunity to be wealthy, but you can also be poor, and you actually have to compete and work hard and perform. There's plenty of opportunity, but there are no guarantees. If you're not used to doing that kind of thing, it's a shock. Some people don't really successfully make that transition.I understand why some people and some groups fear it. I understand them, but I don't sympathize with them or excuse them for it. There's a price for everything; there's no free lunch in life. If they want the benefits, they have to pay the price.
Singapore is actually the exception that proves the rule. (That expression dates from a time when “prove” meant something like “test”.) Singapore is, I think, the only place in the world where people get anything in exchange for their loss of liberty. In all other cases that I can think of, countries that restrict liberty also have more poverty and fewer guarantees.
The problem is: Who will watch the watchers (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes – Satires of Juvenal). Why would the people restricting your liberty – the ones making the rules – do so for your benefit? Besides the fact that making such rules work in practice is really difficult even if they tried, they have little incentive to do so in the first place. They make the rules for their own benefit!
Posted by David Boxenhorn at June 16, 2004 09:53 AM