Libertarianism puts personal freedom first

When I first became politically aware, I identified as a Democrat because I was — and still am — socially liberal. However, as I gained more knowledge of how the government implements policy, I began to realize the Democratic Party’s system was flawed. The basis for this feeling is purely economic: whenever government departments are the sole distributor of services to the people, it creates a monopoly in which politicians are robber barons and we, the people, are screwed.

I know what you are thinking: The government cannot be a monopoly because monopolies only happen when capitalist policies prevent the government from making the free market a fair market. That is a lie. In fact, the government creates monopolies just as often as it destroys them. But when the government decides it will provide a service as a social program, it eliminates our freedom to choose by giving itself total control of the market.

This is a problem because whenever any seller has monopolistic control of a market, it becomes immune to the refining effects of competition. Therefore, the seller ends up providing a good of poorer quality than that which would be produced if it had to compete. In other words, monopolies do not evolve because they terminate the roles of market forces in a given environment. As a result, they sell low-quality products to consumers, who must buy them because they have no other options.

Currently, our government’s monopolistic character creates one severe problem for Americans: We are forced to pay high prices for bad goods. A perfect example of this, on the state level, is the well-loathed Department of Motor Vehicles. The purpose of the DMV is important and necessary — ensuring that only safe drivers are legally allowed to drive. However, without any competition for this service, the DMV does not do its job nearly as well as it should. In Texas, this inefficiency has produced dangerous policies — such as not requiring behind-the-wheel tests for new drivers who pass driver’s education. In this case, taxpaying Texans are paying the state for a service someone else — a private driving instructor — provides, clear evidence that state and federal bureaucracies cannot service our needs as well as the private market. But because these government departments are monopolistic, citizens are powerless to influence them.

These views make me Libertarian because Libertarians are the only people who recognize the same problems. Democrats come close, but they want to increase the size of the government, make it a larger monopoly and forge impassable iron triangles. And

Republicans are too socially restrictive and big-government oriented to suit my needs, although many people think inaccurately that Libertarians and Republicans are very similar.

Essentially, I am a Libertarian because Libertarians believe in making personal freedom a priority in our government, whether it is freedom to choose to have an abortion, freedom to carry a firearm or even freedom to not wear a seat belt.

Being Libertarian does not mean I want to ignore people who need assistance; I just do not think it helps to create monopolistic relationships between the government seller and citizen buyer for essential services like healthcare and education. If monopolies would not be tolerated in any other market, we should not let the government create one in these most important markets. As the great economist Milton Friedman once said, “Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”

Moreover, eliminating the government monopoly would not leave people needy. Private enterprise and charity would easily and efficiently serve recipients of government aid because their demands would still exist. Through these means, people would be free to solve their problems how they want to — not how the government wants them to. I feel it is fundamentally liberal to believe this because liberalism has always pursued the expansion of freedom.

When our constitution was ratified in 1789, the government was handed a clear set of priorities: protect Americans’ life, liberty, pursuit of property and other enumerated rights. But I fear our country has lost its identity. I feel our government has grown so large it violates the freedoms it should protect. I feel our leaders do not understand the true relationship of power between the people and the government and continually increase the ways the government controls our lives. I feel these are the greatest threats to my liberty. That is why I am a Libertarian.

Garrett Schumann is a Hanszen College freshman.

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