The truth is that everyone cares about liberty — when it is their own. Nobody wants the government interfering in the decisions that matter to them. Gay men and lesbian woman want the freedom to choose who they love. Those with strong religious beliefs want to practice those beliefs in their lives and in their businesses. Terminally ill patients want the option to end their suffering by dying on their own terms — or to try an experimental medication that may save their lives.
Pot smokers want the freedom to smoke pot, and gamblers want the freedom to gamble. Gun owners want the freedom to own and use guns for sport and personal protection. Everyone wants the freedom to do what is important to them — to live their own lives based on their own values and in pursuit of what creates their own happiness.
The problem is that while everyone wants liberty, few respect liberty. However we define liberty, we can certainly recognize aspects of it. Liberty means respecting the moral autonomy of each person, seeing each person as the owner of her own life, and each free to make the important decisions about her life.
And thus each of us should be free to think, to speak, to write, to create, to marry, to eat and drink and smoke, to start and run a business, to associate with others as we choose. When we are free, we can construct our lives as we see fit.
The social consequences of liberty are equally desirable. Liberty leads to social harmony. We have less conflict when we have fewer specific commands and prohibitions about how we should live—in terms of class or caste, religion, dress, lifestyle, or schools.
Economic freedom means that people are free to produce and to exchange with others. Freely negotiated and agreed-upon prices carry information throughout the economy about what people want and what can be done more efficiently. For an economic order to function, prices must be free to tell the truth. A free economy gives people incentives to invent, innovate, and produce more goods and services for the whole society.
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