Fences or Freedom?

In my blog titled “Fences” (below) I expressed dismay over the plan to build 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border, arguing that individual freedom promotes peace and prosperity and all infringements on individual freedom, no matter how small, result in some degree of conflict and some reduction of prosperity.

A reader responded that “If our borders were completely open a billion or more hungry people would flood across. … You could forget about maintaining your property rights.”

When defending every individual’s right to make his or her own choices, I’m often told that I’ve overlooked the immediate consequences. For example, if all restrictions to foreign imports were suddenly removed, tens of thousands would lose their jobs because subsidized foreign products would flood our markets, or if government stopped printing money, interest rates would rise and cause a depression, or if open immigration were allowed, we would be deluged with freedom-seekers. Granted, in a world in which force has permeated our lives, it’s never hard to point out the instant (and seemingly destructive) effects of true freedom.

All the evidence of history, however, argues that social and economic organization based on voluntary contractual agreement is the only solution to the horrendous world conflict that has been generated by a world in which social and economic organization is based on political authority.

Each solution based on voluntary action rather than forced compliance has instantly observable consequences, while solutions based on political expediency, and which violate individual freedom, have delayed, unintended consequences. It’s easy to see that jobs are lost when lower cost foreign imports lure away customers. It’s harder to see the higher standard of living and savings gained by consumers. It easy to see the immediate benefits of printing-press money, but harder to understand that in the longer term the consequence must be price inflation, and deeper recession. The very short-term costs of moving from coercion to freedom are vastly offset by the long term benefits of a free society.

Yes additional millions would see America as the land of opportunity, and struggle to get here. However, immigrants want to work, and work creates goods and services, so the standard of living of the community rises and costs fall. Unsubsidized human beings, given the freedom to produce, always create more than they consume, leading ultimately to a full, expanding granary.

What is the promise of freedom? Think again about the message on the plaque at the base of The Statue of Liberty:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

All men yearn to breathe free, and the beacon torch held by Lady Liberty is the light of freedom. The golden door could be the entry way to a world of plenty, a world in which individuals rather than governments are sovereign.