Economic conservativism: principles and practice

Politics and Libertarianism

According to the documentary "Liberty and economics" which focuses on the work of the economist Ludwig von Mises, the free market works in an ideal fashion because consumers can decide what they wish to buy in a free and unfettered manner. Von Mises' thought was heavily shaped by his experiences as a Jew living in Nazi Germany: he saw Nazism, socialism, and communism all as ideologies which attempted to deprive people of the ability to make decisions on their own terms. Von Mises believed that all economic problems were rooted in mismanagement by the government and centralized authority. He was a great advocate of the gold standard as a method of ensuring market independence. Von Mises was extremely unpopular because he condemned both fascism and communism as statism and contrary to liberty: conventional economic liberalism was very unpopular when he was writing and frowned upon as antiquated.

The concept of political liberalism has been used to justify the contemporary American libertarian and Tea Party ideology of today. This can be seen in John Stossel's documentary "The road to serfdom" which creates a picture of America in which people who deserve to 'rise to the top' based upon market forces but who are kept in check by government bureaucracy. However, the premise of Stossel's argument is that all people start on a level playing field and that attempting to enforce fairness is wrong and is 'dragging the top down.' They argue that the wealth generated by the wealthiest 1% will elevate the bottom 5%, i.e., suggesting that a 'rising tide will lift all boats' based upon the wisdom of the individual hand of the marketplace. Stossel is highly critical of the concept of trying to eliminate inequality, arguing that it is a natural state of human affairs. Justice is a 'level playing field' not equality, he states, although the extent to which factors such as parental wealth and opportunities generated by one's parents are unremarked upon over the course of the entire documentary.

Regardless, both documentaries highlight the degree to which morality has become intertwined with economic freedom. For Von Mises, economic capitalism, a monetarist approach to recessions, and classical liberalism were not only economically sound but also moral imperatives. It was right and just that people should accept the moral consequences of their decision-making, and that exchanges of goods and services should be based in something real rather than something false (hence his advocacy of the gold standard). Advocates of a social safety net similarly see their economic decisions as guided by a moral impetus, namely to cushion the excesses of the marketplace that hurt the most disenfranchised members of society. But in the Von Mises tradition, too much of an emphasis on this leads to injustice against those who should benefit. Wealth is seen as a good thing and an example of morality rather than excess.