Some people want to ban products that might lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and other health problems. Right-sized governments do not try to make their people moral. Instead, they preserve the freedom of individuals to act as they think best to promote morality. Churches, civic groups, writers, and orators are free to try to persuade people to live what they regard as a moral life.
Government should protect the right of all to enter the marketplace of ideas about morality but should draw the line at actions that force others to live by those ideas. Arguing that alcoholic beverages are evil and should not be consumed is fine; smashing bars and burning down distilleries is not.
One of the most important foundations of morality, and one that is reinforced by right-sized government, is the live-and-let-live philosophy. Live-and-let-live adherents may not approve of things that others do, but they do not believe they have any right to use force to make them behave differently.
Might never makes right, and the willingness to renounce it is a hallmark of morality. But big government undermines morality. It does so by seducing people into the belief that might does make right—provided that it is exercised democratically.
When big government stands ready to enact laws and regulations that take from some and give to others, and when politicians campaign by promising to do exactly that, it leads people to believe that coercion is morally proper.
Do you want food, housing, education, or medical care provided to you at the expense of others? Prior to the advent of big government, when people wanted to accomplish something, whether personal enrichment or the realization of some lofty social dream, they knew they had to go about it through peaceful means. Big government encourages them to use politics to accomplish their objectives, thus legitimizing coercion.
And with the legitimization of this variety of coercion, is it any wonder that many people conclude that coercion is permissible even without playing the political game first? What is so bad about big government?
My indictment of big government is that it is bad because it attacks liberty, prosperity, progress, harmony, and morality. Thanks to big government, we have significantly less of all of those good things than we would if we had been able to keep government right-sized. Big government is cancerous.
Like a cancer, it hurts the body and tends to spread, doing more and more harm as it grows. It is time for some radical surgery. George Leef is the former book review editor of The Freeman. He is director of research at the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. Please, enable JavaScript and reload the page to enjoy our modern features. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.
Please do not edit the piece, ensure that you attribute the author and mention that this article was originally published on FEE.
Latest Stories. Besides the coercion and social harm. Marshall, L. Melman, S. Meltzer, A. Mitnick, B. New York: Columbia University Press. Murphy, P. New York: Harper Torchbooks. Nadiri, M. Nevins, A. New York: Dodd, Mead. Nordlinger, E. North, D. Nutter, G. Nutter, Ed. Oi, W. Olmstead, A. Olson, M. Pathirane, L. Peltzman, S. Polenberg, R. New York: Lippincott. Popper, K. Porter, B. Radosh, R. New York: Dutton. Reynolds, M. New York: Universe Books. Rosenberg, N.
Harmondsworth: Penguin. Rourke, F. Schumpeter, J. Shultz, G. Siegan, B. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Soule, G. Stein, H. Sumner, W. Keller and M.
Davie, Eds. New York: Yale University Press. Thaler, R. Tullock, G. Twight, C. Higgs, Ed. Greenwich, Conn. Washington, D. Printing Office. Vatter, H. Mixed Economy. Weaver, C. Weaver, P. Weidenbaum, M. I have discussed the subjects of this article over several years with many people. Editor Larry Neal and an anonymous referee at Explorations in Economic History gave me useful comments on an earlier draft.
My son Matt Higgs compelled our computer to draw Fig. For financial support of my research, I am grateful to the Center for Libertarian Studies, which awarded me a Ludwig von Mises Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences during Of course, only I am responsible for what has come of it all.
See Higgs , Chap. Others who have recognized the importance of path dependency include Nutter , pp. For a brief examination of the issue of how to measure the growth of government, see Higgs a. I conclude there p. Further, quantitative indexes may register little or no change even when the substance of governmental power changes enormously.
For some comparative international data on the growth of government, see Kuznets , pp. The U. Of course, the government did not assume a deliberately activist, managerial posture with regard to these powers until the s, especially after the recession of Stein, , But that change signified only a different way of exercising a long-established power, not an increment of Big Government in my sense.
Others who have recognized the importance of governmental autonomy include Knight , p. For an exceptionally full and careful treatment of this issue, with a valuable survey of the related economic literature and an insightful empirical application, see Twight Compare Becker , pp. Becker offers no empirical evidence in support of this assumption, which seems to me extremely fanciful. On the theory of technological change, see Mansfield and Rosenberg , For an extended explication of the concept of ideology in relation to political economy and economic history, see my forthcoming book, Chap.
See also the exchange between Higgs b and Kraditor January 1, By Robert Higgs. Table 1. Landmarks in the Emergence of Federal Control over the Economy. This article is reprinted with permission from the Vol.
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These instances of embedding long-term thinking into short-term measures are clearly steps in the right direction. But, given the sheer scale of fiscal support being provided and rising concerns about inequality, climate change, unemployment, and public debt, the next wave of recovery measures should go even further. Its basic conditions would help European countries shift away from declining heavy industries while supporting vulnerable workers.
The pandemic has thrust governments into a more proactive role than anyone would have imagined just a few months ago.
As we move beyond the immediate health crisis, policymakers must seize the opportunity to implement bold, forward-looking reforms. That includes redesigning social contracts, providing adequate safety nets, cultivating the skills and jobs that the future economy will need, and improving the distribution of risk and return between the public, the state, and the private sector.
But while governments must assume a leadership role, shaping the recovery and charting a new course for growth will require greater collaboration between businesses, public and government institutions, and workers. For the Great Reset to succeed, all stakeholders must have a hand in it.
By now, it should be obvious that we cannot go back to a system that benefited the few at the expense of the many. It organizes the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values. Even in a polarized era, the survey reveals deep divisions in both partisan coalitions.
Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics. Pew Research Center now uses as the last birth year for Millennials in our work. President Michael Dimock explains why.
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