CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND WELFARE 349 that in societieswith sufficient resources,the right to welfare shouldbe unconditional. On this view, the right to receivebenefits shouldnot dependon one's attitude or behavior-on one's willingness to work, for example-but simply on need.Two other articles in this chapteralso focus on issuesregardingwelfare, more particularly, the social-welfare system in the United States.Charles Murray arguesthat all socialwelfare programs should be taken out of the hands of the federal governmentand left to local governments.Nancy Fraseris concernedwith the way the welfare system interprets women's needsandthe different assumptionsunderlying thosesocialwelfare programs whose primary recipients are women and thosedesignedprimarily with men in mind. '" JaneS. Zembaty What Libertarianism Is John Hospers JohnHospersis professoremeritusof philosophyat the Universityof SouthernCalifornia and past editor of Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. His books include Human Conduct: Problems of Ethics (1972), Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971), Understanding the Arts (1982), and An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis (3d ed., 1988). Hospersdefends two ideas central to libertarianism: (1) Individuals own their own lives. They, therefore, have the right to act as they choose unless their actions interfere with the liberty of others to act as they choose. (2) The only appropriate function of government is to protect human rights, understood as negative rights (i.e., rights of noninterference). ~ U f \'o/"~~ dI II . :I The political phi,losophythat is called libertarianism (from the Latin libertas, liberty)c,Ao:D\ is the doctrine that every personis the owner of his own life, and that no one is the II"- ! owner of anyoneelse's life; and that consequentlyevery human being has the right q: to act in accordance with his own~j unlessthoseactionsinfringe on the equal liberty of other human beings to act in accordancewith their choices. There are ~everalother ~ays of stating the s~e libertarian thesis:. Oll-l1;IY) 1 No one ,~ anyone else.s~aster, and no one ,~ anyoneelse's.slave.SmceI am P'" i/~c.l.. the one to decIdehow my hfe ISto be conducted,Just as you decIdeabout yours, I ftfr'J have no right (even if I had the power) to make you my slave and be your master, nor have you the right to becomethe masterby enslavingme. Slavery isforced servitude, and since no one owns the life of anyoneelse,no one has the right to enslave ~ \' r ;, I I ; Reprinted with permission of Nelson-Hall Inc., Publishers from Tibor R. Machan, ed., The Libertarian Alternative (1974). ;, j , '\ ,I f ..Jf~;{\ ! 350 CHAPTER8: ECONOMICJUSTICEAND WELFARE another. Political theories past and present have traditionally been concerned wi who should be the master (usually the king, the dictator, or governmentbureaucrac and who should be the slaves, and what the extent of the slavery should be. Libe tarianism holds that no one has the right to use force to enslave the life of anoth or any portion or aspect of that life. 2 Other men's lives are not yours to dispose of. I enjoy seeing operas; but oper are expensive to produce. Opera-lovers often say, "The state (or the city, etc.) shou subsidize opera, so that we can all see it. Also it would be for people's betterme cultural benefit, etc." But what they are advocating is nothing more or less than i galized plunder. They can't pay for the productions themselves, and yet they w to see opera, which involves a large number of people and their labor; so what th are saying in effect is, "Get the money through legalized force. Take a little bit mo out of every worker's paycheck every week to pay for the operas we want to see But I have no right to take by force from the workers' pockets to pay for what I w Perhaps it would be better if he did go to see opera-then I should try to convin him to go voluntarily. But to take the money from him forcibly, because in my opi ion it would be good for him, is still seizure of his earnings, which is plunder. Besides, if I have the right to force him to help pay for my pet projects, hasn't equally the right to force me to help pay for his? Perhaps he in turn wants the go emment to subsidize rock-and-roll, or his new car, or a house in the country? If have the right to milk him, why hasn't he the right to milk me? If I can be a mor :;;, cannibal, why can't he too? We should beware of the inventors or utopias. They would remake the world a cording to their vision-with the lives and fruits of the labor of other human being Is it someone' s utopian vision that others should build pyramids to beautify the:lei1 scape? Very well, then other men should provide the labor; and if he is iri a positio of political power, and he can't get men to do it voluntarily, then he must camp them to "cooperate"-i..e. he must enslave them. A hundred men might gain great pleasure from beating up or killing just one i significant human being; but other men's lives are not theirs to dispose of. "In ord to achieve the worthy goals of the next five-year-plan, we must forcibly collectiviz the peasants. . ."; but other men's lives are not theirs to dispose of. Do you want t occupy, rent-free, the mansion that another man has worked for twenty years to buy But other men's lives are not yours to dispose of. Do you want operas so badly th everyone is forced to work harder to pay for their subsidization through taxes? B other men's lives are not yours to dispose of. Do you want to have f~me~al car at the expense of other people, whether they wish to provide it or not? But this woul require them to work longer for you whether they want to or not, and other men' lives are not yours to dispose of. Thefreedom to engagein any type of enterprise,to produce, to own and control property, to buy and sellon .thefree market; is derived from the rights to life, liberty, and property . . . which are stated in the Declaration of Independence. . . [but] when a government guar- anteesa "right" to an educationor parity onfarm products or a guaranteedannual income,it is staking a claim on theproperty of one group of citizensfor the sakeof another group. In short, it is violating one of thefundamental rights it was instituted to protect.! (~r'" I CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND WELFARE 351 3 No human being should be a nonvoluntary mortgage on the life of another. I cannot claim your life, your work, or the products of your effort as mine. The fruit of one man's labor should not be fair game for every freeloader who comes along and demandsit ashis own. The orchardthat hasbeencarefully grown, nurtured, and harvestedby its owner should not be ripe for the plucking for any bypasserwho has a yen for the ripe fruit. The wealth that somemen have produced should not be fair game for looting by government,to be used for whatever purposesits representa-:tives determine,no matter what their motives in so doing may be. The theft of your moneyby a robberis not justified by the fact that he usedit to help his injured mother. It will already be evident that libertarian doctrine is embeddedin a view of the rights of man. Each human being has the right to live his life as he chooses,compatibly with the equalright of all otherhumanbeingsto live their lives asthey choose. All man's rights are implicit in the above statement.Each man has the right to life; any attemptby others to take it away from him, or even to injure him, violates this right, through the useof coercion againsthim. Eachman has the right to liberty: to conduct his life in accordancewith the alternativesopen to him without coercive action by others.And every man hasthe right to property: to work to sustainhis life (and the lives of whichever others he choosesto sustain,such as his family) and to retain the fruits of his labor. Peopleoften defendthe rights of life and liberty but denigrateproperty rights, and yet the right to property is as basic as the other two; indeed,without property rights no otherrights arepossible.Depriving you of property is depriving you of the means by which you live. . . . All that which an individual possessesby right (including his life and property) are morally his to use, dispose of and even destroy, as he seesfit. If] own my life, then it fol- lows that] amfree to associatewith whom] pleaseand not to associatewith whom] please. If] own my knowledgeand services,it follows that] may ask any compensation] wishfor providing themfor another, or] may abstainfrom providing themat all, if] so choose.If ] own my house,it follows that] may decorate it as ] please and live in it with whom] J please. If] c~ntrol ~y own business, itfollows t~at] may charge what] please!or my pro~- i ;1' , '\ ~ t'i U h I ) ~ ucts or services,hire whom I please and not hire whQm] please.All that which] own m rf/\ fact, ] ~y dis~oseof as ] .chooseto in reality. For anyoneto attempt to limit myfreedom p to do so ISto vlolate my rights. Wheredo my rights end? Whereyours begin. ] may do anything] wish with my own /")1 ~ : ~ life, liberty and property without your consent,. but] may do nothing with your life, liberty and property without your consent. If we recognize the principle of man's rights, it follows that the individual is sovereign of the domain of his own life and property, and is sovereign of no other domain. To attempt to interfere forcibly with another's use, disposal or destruction of his own property is to initiate force against him and to violate his rights. .:: 1 t. f I haveno right to decidehow you shouldspendyour time or your money.I can makethat decisionfor myself,but not for you, my neighbor.I may deploreyour choiceof life-style,andI ~aytalk with you aboutit p~ovidedyou arewil.iingto listen to me. But I haveno nght to useforce to changeIt. Nor haveI the nght to decidehow you shouldspendthemoneyyou haveearned.I mayappealto you to give f. it to the Red Cross, and you may prefer to go to prizefights. But that is your deci- t. 'I.; '. r ,,' "i'i ..~ ,., ~c i : .I ' ... 352 CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND WELFARE sion, and however much I may chafe about it I do not have the right to interfere forcibly with it, for exampleby robbing you in order to usethe money in with my choices. (If I have the right to rob you, have you also the right to rob me?) When I claim a right, I carve out a niche, as it were, in my life, saying in effect, "This activity I must be able to perform without interferencefrom others.For you and everyoneelse,this is off limits." And so I put up a "no trespassing"sign, which marks off the area of my right. Each individual's right is his "no trespassing"sign in relation to me and others.I may not encroachupon his domain any more than he upon mine, without my consent.Every right entails a duty, true-but the duty is only that of forbearance-that is, of refraining from violating the other person'sright. If you have a right to life, I have no right to take your life; if you have a right to the products of your labor (property), I have no right to take it from you without your consent.The non-violation of theserights will not guaranteeyou protection against natural catastrophessuch as floods and earthquakes,but it will protect you against the aggressiveactivities of other men.And rights, after all, have to do with one's relations to other human beings, not with one's relations to physical nature. Nor were theserights createdby government;governments-some governments, obviously not all-recognize and protect the rights that individuals already have.. Governmentsregularly forbid homicide and theft; and, at a more advancedstage, protect individuals against such things as libel and breachof contract. . . . l Government is the most dangerous institution known to man~Throughout history it has violated the rights of men more than any individual or group of individuals could do: it haskilled people, enslavedthem, sentthem to forced labor and concen-' tra:tioncamps,and regularly robbedandpillaged them of the fruits of their expended labor. Unlike individual criminals, governmenthas the power to arrestand try; unlike individual criminals, it can surroundand encompassa persontotally, dominating every aspectof one's life, so that one has no recoursefrom it but to country (and in totalitarian nationseven that is prohibited). Government history has a much sorrier record than any individual, even that of a ruthless murderer.The signswe seeon bumperstickersarechillingly accurate:"Beware: Governmentis Armed and Dangerous." The only proper role of government,accordingto libertarians, is that of the tector of the citizen against aggressionby other individuals. The government, course,should never initiate aggression;its proper role is as the embodimentof retaliatory use of force againstanyonewho initiates its use. If each individual had constantly to defend himself againstpossible aggressors, he would have to spend a considerableportion of his life in target p~actice,karate exercises,and other meansof self-defenses,and evenso he would probably be less againstgroupsof individuals who might try to kill, maim, or rob him. He havelittle time for cultivating thosequalities which areessentialto civilized life, nor would improvementsin science,medicine, and the arts be likely to occur. The tunc, tion of governmentis to take this responsibility off his shoulders:the government undertakesto defend him againstaggressorsand to punish them if they attack him; When the governmentis effective in doing this, it enablesthe citizen to go abouthis businessunmolestedand without constantfear for his life. To do this, of course,gov- ,C CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND WELFARE 353 (J ~ !J , 'j j\. "' J ernmentmust have physical power-the police, to protect the citizen from aggression within its borders, and the armed forces, to protect him from aggressorsoutside.Beyond that, the governmentshould not intrude upon his life, either to run his ~ business,or adjusthis daily activities,or prescribehis personalmoral code. Government, then,undertakes to betheindividual'sprotector;buthistoricallygov- 'I ernmentshave gone far beyond this function. Since they already have the physical ,~ t, power,theyhavenot hesitatedto useit for purposesfar beyondthat which wasentrustedto themin the first place.Undertakinginitially to protectits citizensagainst aggression, it hasoftenitself becomeanaggressor-afar greateraggressor, indeed, it j thanthe criminals againstwhom it was supposedto protect its citizens. Governments have done what no private citizen can do: arrestand imprison individuals without a 1 1 trial andsendthemto slavelaborcamps.Governmentmusthavepowerin orderto ; be effective-and yet the very meansby which aloneit can be effective make it vuJnerableto the abuseof power, leading to managingthe lives of individuals and even inflicting terror upon them. What then should be the function of government?,In a word, the protection of human rights. 1 The right to life: libertarians supportall suchlegislatien;:as-wiIfprotecthuman beingsagainstthe useof force by others,for-example,laws againstkilling, attempted killing, maiming, beating, and all kinds of physical violence. 2 The right to liberty: there should be no laws compromising in any way freedom of speech,of the press, and of peaceableassembly.There should be no censorshipof ideas,books, films, or of anything else by government. 3 The right to property: libertarians supportlegislation that protectsthe property rights of individuals againstconfiscation,nationalization,eminent domain, robbery, trespass,fraud and misrepresentation,patent and copyright, libel and slander. .. ,1 '1 :If '], ! ! Someonehasviolently assaultedyou. Should he be legally liable? Of course.He hasviolated one of your rights. He hasknowingly injured you, and sincehe hasini- tiatedaggression againstyou he shouldbe madeto expiate. Someonehas negligently left his bicycle on the sidewalk where you trip over it in the dark and injure yourself. He didn't do it intentionally; he didn't meanyou any harm. Should he be legally liable? Of course;he has, however unwittingly., injured you, and sincethe injury is causedby ,himand'youare"the victim, he should pay. Someoneacrossthe street is unemployed.Should you be taxed extra to pay for his expens~s?Not at all. You have not injured him, you are not responsiblefor the fact that he is unemployed(unlessyou are a senatoror bureaucratwho agitated for further curtailing of business,which legislationpassed,with the result that your neighbor was laid off by the curtailed business).You may voluntarily wish to help him out, or better still, try to get him ajob to put him on his feet again; but sinceyou have initiated no aggressiveact againsthim, and neither purposely nor accidentally injured him in any way, you should not be legally penalizedfor the fact of his unemployment. (Actually, it is just suchpenaltiesthat increaseunemployment.) One man, A, works hard for yearsandfinally earnsa high salary asa professional man.A secondman,B, prefersnot to work at all, andto spendwastefully what money I, ,~~~3).'~~'\C',~t 354 CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND WELFARE he has (through inheritance), so that after a year or two he has nothing left. At the end of this time he has a long siege of illness and lots of medical bills to pay. He demands that the bills be paid by the government-that is, by the taxpayers of the land, including Mr. A. But of course B has no such right. He chose to lead his life ina certain way-that was his voluntary decision. One consequence of that choice is that he must depend on charityin caseof laterneed.Mr. A chosenot to live thatway. (And if everyone lived like Mr. B, on whom would he depend in case of later need?) Each has a right to live in the way he pleases, but each must live with the consequences of his own decision (which, as always, fall primarily on himself). He cannot, in time of need, ~ ~ \ ~ claim A' sbeneficence as his right. . . . Laws may be classified into three types: (1) laws protecting individuals against themselves, such as laws against fornication and other sexual behavior, alcohol, and drugs;(2) lawsprotectingindividualsagainstaggressions by otherindividuals,such as laws against murder, robbery, and fraud; (3) laws requiring people to help one another; for example, all laws which rob Peter to pay Paul, such as welfare. Libertarians reject the first class of laws totally. Behavior which harms no one else is strictly the individual's own affair. Thus, there should be no laws against becoming intoxicated, since whether or not to become intoxicated is the individual's own decision; but there should be laws against driving while intoxicated, since the drunken driver is a threat to every other motorist on the highway (drunken driving falls into type 2). Similarly, there should be no laws against drugs (except the prohibition of sale of drugs to minors) as long as the taking of these drugs poses no threat to anyone else. Drug addiction is a psychological problem to which no present solution exists. Mpst of the social harm caused by addicts, other than to themselves, is the result of thefts which they perform in order to continue their habit-and then the legal crime is the theft, not the addiction. The actual cost of heroin is about ten cents a shot; if it were legalized, the enormous traffic in illegal sale and purchase of it would stop, as well as the accompanying proselytization to get new addicts (to make more money for the pusher) and the thefts performed by addicts who often require eighty dollars a day just to keep up the habit. Addiction would not stop, but the crimes would: it is estimated that 75 percent of the burglaries in New York City today are performed by addicts, and all these crimes would be wiped out at one stroke through the legal". ization of drugs. (Only when the taking of drugs could be shown to constitute a threat to others, should it be prohibited by law. It is only laws protecting people against themselves that libertarians oppose.) Laws should be limited to the second class only: aggression by individuals against other individuals. These are laws whose function is to protect human beings against encroachment by others; and this, as we have seen, is (according to libertarianism) the sole function of government. Libertarians also reject the third class of laws totally: no one should be forced by law to help others, not even to tell them the time of day if requested, and certainly not to give them a portion of one's weekly paycheck. Governments, in the guise of humanitarianism, have given to some by taking from others (charging a "handling fee" in the process, which, becauseof the government's waste and inefficiency, some- CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND WELFARE 357 times is severalhundred percent).And in so doing they have decreasedincentive, violated the rights of individuals, andlowered the standardof living of almosteveryone. All such laws constitute what libertarians call moral cannibalism. A cannibal in the physical senseis a personwho lives off the flesh of other humanbeings.A moral cannibal is one who believeshe hasa right to live off the "spirit" of other humanbeings-who believes that he has a moral claim on the productive capacity, time, and l " , effort expendedby others. It hasbecomefashionableto claim virtually everything that one needsor desires as one's right. Thus, many people claim that they have a right to ajob, the right to free medical care,to free food and clothing, to a decenthome,and so on. Now if one asks,apartfrom any specific context, whetherit would be desirableif everyonehad thesethings, onemight well sayyes.But thereis a gimmick attachedto eachof them: At whose expense?Jobs, medical care, education,and so on, don't grow on trees. Theseare goodsand servicesproduced only by men.Who, then, is'to provide them, and under what conditions? If you have a right to ajob, who is to supply it? Must an employer supply it even if he doesn't want to hire you? What if you areunemployable,or incurably lazy? (If you say "the governmentmust supply it," doesthat meanthat a job must be created for you which no employer needsdone,and that you must be kept in it regardlessof how much or little you work?) If the employer is forced to supply it at his expense even if he doesn't need you,\then isn't he being enslavedto that extent? What ever happenedto his right to conduct his life and his affairs in accordance with his choices? If you have a right to free medical care,then, sincemedical care doesn't exist in nature as wild applesdo, somepeople will have to supply it to you for free: that is, they will have to spendtheir time and money and energytaking careof you whether theywantto or not. Whateverhappened to their right to conducttheir lives asthey ! s~efit? Or do you have a right to violate theirs?Cantherebe a right to violate rights? All those who demandthis or that as a "free service" are consciously or unconsciously evading the fact that there is in reality no such thing as free services.All man-madegoods and servicesare the result of human expenditure of time and effort. There is no suchthing as "something for nothing" in this world. If you demand somethingfree, you are demandingthat other men give their time and effort to you ,:"ithout compensation.If they voluntarily chooseto do this, thereis no problem; but If you demandthat they beforced to do it, you are interfering with their right not to do it if they so choose."Swimming in this pool ought to be free!" saysthe indignant passerby.What he meansis that others should build a pool, others should provide ~ j " \. j ; I the materials,andstill othersshouldrun it andkeepit in functioningorder,so that \ i he can use it without fee. But what right has he to the expenditureof their time and effort? To expectsomething"for free" is to expectit to bepaid for by others whether they chooseto or not. Many questions,particularly about economic matters,will be generatedby the ! t I i \ f" libertarianaccountof humanrightsandtherole of government. Shouldgovernment have no role in assistingthe needy,in providing social security, in legislating min- iJ;c i l,1 '.I I;, ciJ " ~iJ!i£'~~'i):'c)\";:c 356 CHAPTER 8: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND WELFARE imum wages,in fixing prices and putting a ceiling on rents, in curbing monopolies, in erecting tariffs, in guaranteeingjobs, in managing the money supply? To these and all similar questionsthe libertarian answerswith an unequivocal no. "But then you'd let people go hungry!" comesthe rejoinder. This, the libertarian insists, is precisely what would not happen;with the restrictions removed,the economy would flourish as never before. With the controls taken off business,existing enterpriseswould expandand new oneswould spring into existencesatisfying more and more consumerneeds; millions more people would be gainfully employed insteadof subsistingon welfare, and all kinds of researchandproduction,releasedfrom the strangleholdof government,would proliferate, fulfilling man's needsanddesires as never before. It has always been so whenevergovernmenthas permitted men to be free traders on a free market. But why this is so, and how the free market is the best solution to all problems relating to the material aspectof man's life, is another and far longer story. . . . NOTE 1 William W. Bayes, "What Is Property?" The Freeman,July 1970,p. 348. QUESTIONS '1 1 Somelibertariansarguethat from a moral standpointthereis no differencebetweenthe ac~ tions of an ordinary thief and those of a governmentwhen it seizesmoney from someiq order to supportothers.They assumethat if the former arewrong, then so arethe latter. Ar~ they correct? 2 Do you agreethat the governmentshould have no role in assistingthe needy?What reasonscan you advanceto defendyour answer? A Moral Casefor Socialism Kai Nielsen Kai Nielsen is professoremeritusof philosophy at the University of Calgary, Canada. the author of Equality and Liberty: A Defenseof Radical Egalitarianism (1985), God, ScepticismandModemity (1989), and Ethics without God (1990). Nielsen puts forth a moral casefor socialism.He identifies and explicatesa cluster of valuesthat are basic to our culture-freedom and autonomy,equality, justice, rights, and democracy-and then compares"pure socialism" and "pure capitalism" in Tespectto thesevalues.Nielsen concludesthat a socialist systemis much more likely to exemplify our basic valuesthan a capitalist system. Reprintedwith pennissionfrom CriticalReview,vol. 3, SummerlFall1989, pp.542-552. l j
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