Many societies have set out to design a system that promotes human flourishing, embracing a multitude of ideas and philosophies regarding fulfillment, freedom, and virtue. At a deeper level, however, Liberty is essential and foundational to all of these concepts. Liberty is a necessary component to a virtuous, responsible, and prosperous society.

Vice, Virtue, and the State

A government can punish vice, but cannot generate virtue. The state is a system, a machine made of people, forms, laws, and procedures. Regardless of what one thinks the aims of that system should be, we can agree on the tools that it possesses to achieve its ends. In simple terms, it has a carrot and a stick, The ability to incentivise behavior with material gain, and disincentivize behavior with punishments. Both of these methods have proved useful in modifying human behavior. A system that investigates, prosecutes, and punishes murder will generally reduce the incidence of murder within its jurisdiction. Similarly, a system that provides a tax write-off (material gain) for donating to charity will generally have more charitable donations. This may all seem well and good so far, but beneath these appearances of virtue, the state utterly fails to address the root of why individuals make their choices. Having laws for murder does not decrease the internal desire of an individual to harm those who have wronged them. It simply creates a fear of consequences in them that, in many cases, overrides the other desire. In the case of deducting charitable donations, the system did not internally generate intent to give charitably. It only caused those who were inclined towards preserving their wealth from taxation to engage in the behavior of donation and charity. Elon Musk has donated billions of dollars to the Musk Foundation, saving himself billions in tax payments. With this foundation, he has repeatedly given grants that only benefit himself and his companies. Despite this, his foundation has repeatedly failed to meet the government regulation to “direct 5% of their assets each year to charitable purposes.” From these examples, it is clear that the tools of the state are utterly insufficient to generate virtue. The state can legislate behavior, but cannot legislate intent. For a virtuous society to exist, communities, families, churches must have the liberty to freely operate, in their cultivation of character.

Individual Responsibility

Secondly, holding individuals responsible for their actions generally causes them to make more thoughtful long-term decisions. While this may seem straightforward, many anti-liberty policies implicitly or explicitly seek to collectivise the consequences of bad decisions. One clear example of this is student debt forgiveness. While this policy would reduce student debt, it has the insidious and counterproductive side-effect of incentivising waste and carelessness in selection of post-secondary options. Student loan forgiveness distorts the options so that an exorbitantly expensive degree in a field with few opportunities has a similar level of risk to a more modest certification from a trade school. Freedom from intervention in decision making causes people to make wiser decisions, and not pass on the consequences of their actions to those around them.

So you want the Poor to Suffer?

It is at this point that many critics of liberty will aptly point out that such a policy seems to be advocating for the removal of social safetynets, which many people depend on. The underlying desire to support the poor and suffering is truly a good and virtuous one. Even so, the funding for such social safetynets comes at the expense of higher taxes for the rest of the population, which are extracted by the threat of force. The end result of supporting the needy is not virtuous when a byproduct of coercion and threat of force, as opposed to voluntary giving. If an armed gang robs a person and gives the proceeds to a virtuous cause, the one who is robbed is no more virtuous.

Liberty and Collectivism

Finally, liberty allows for diversity that allows more and different individuals to thrive. Centralized systems will usually fail to be equitable. Anyone who has been a part of the public school system will likely be able to explain the limitations of one-size-fits-all solutions in education. Charter and Private schools are a success story of how liberty provides options for students with different needs and values. While centralized systems may support many in a society, diverse and free systems are necessary to bring equity to those who deviate from the norm. Counterintuitively, only by embracing Liberty and rejecting collectivism can the collective prosper.

In Conclusion

Liberty is usually defended on the basis of economic efficiency or personal autonomy, but its value is actually more foundational. Virtue, responsibility, and equity all fundamentally necessitate liberty. A prosperous and virtuous society can never be built on a foundation of coercion, but only on the free actions of responsible individuals.