Freedom : Equality :: Non-Discrimination : Preferences

George Will in his column today returns to one of his favorite topics, freedom v. equality, and argues that we may be about to have “the most nation-shaping election since 1932.”

Today, as for two centuries, the left-right divide is defined by different valuations of equality and freedom. Liberals favor expanding government controls, shrinking the sphere of freedom of choice, to promote equality — equal dependence on government-provided education, health and pension entitlements.

Conservatives say this produces a culture of dependency. It diminishes individual competence and dignity and impedes the progress that results from competing social alternatives — in education, health care and pensions. Conservatives say inequalities of outcomes are manifestations of freedom and prerequisites for progress.

Will discusses four key areas where this conflict manifests itself:

school standards and choice; medical savings accounts; choice in investing a portion of Social Security taxes; and cuts in individual income taxes.

Standards that measure schools’ performances enable parents, exercising the right to choose, to differentiate education products. Medical savings accounts would empower individuals to pursue preferences and, by making individuals into price-sensitive shoppers, the accounts would serve medical cost-containment. Private investment of Social Security taxes would democratize access to wealth creation, reducing dependence on government-provided retirement security. Low taxes expand each earner’s freedom by enlarging discretionary income and focus society’s attention on improving well-being through individual creation of wealth rather than government redistribution of it.

Will concludes by contrasting Republicans, who “plan to sacrifice some equality to promote individualism,” to Democrats, who “want to limit freedom of choice in order to promote the social solidarity of equal dependence on government provision of services.”

Don’t worry (or, conceivably, rejoice); I am not going off topic to discuss matters of tax, health, or welfare policy. But note how compatible Will’s analysis is with the argument that concludes my immediately preceding post. Because Republicans tend to believe in equality of opportunity rather than equality of results, they are willing to tolerate what some regard as racial inequality, i.e., a distribution of social goods that is not racially proportional, so long as no part of the inequality is the result of discrimination. Thus they believe in what can be termed a free racial and ethnic market governed only by strict, neutral rules of non-discrimination. Democrats, on the other hand, increasingly believe in a version of racial equality that requires racial proportionality, and to achieve it they favor active government micro-management of the racial and ethnic market, complete with incentives, preferences, and subsidies to produce the desired racial and ethnic balance. Thus they sacrifice the right of individuals to freedom from racial discrimination to promote the rights of groups to proportional inclusion.

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  1. A Perfectly Cromulent Blog February 4, 2004 at 9:36 am | | Reply

    Carnival of the Vanities #72

    Smiles, everyone smiles…My dear guests, I am Mr. Pete, your host. Welcome to Carnival of the Vanities #72. Putting together this edition of the Carnival has been an interesting experience. I’ve been exposed to a number of blogs I don’t…

  2. A Perfectly Cromulent Blog February 4, 2004 at 9:40 am | | Reply

    Carnival of the Vanities #72

    Smiles, everyone smiles…My dear guests, I am Mr. Pete, your host. Welcome to Carnival of the Vanities #72. Putting together this edition of the Carnival has been an interesting experience. I’ve been exposed to a number of blogs I don’t…

  3. A Perfectly Cromulent Blog February 4, 2004 at 10:02 am | | Reply

    Carnival of the Vanities #72

    Smiles, everyone smiles…My dear guests, I am Mr. Pete, your host. Welcome to Carnival of the Vanities #72. Putting together this edition of the Carnival has been an interesting experience. I’ve been exposed to a number of blogs I don’t…

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