Freedom

The collection When We Are Free, edited by Dale M. Haywood, Timothy G. Nash, and R. John Amin, is a book about freedom, as the editors note in the Preface. They state that their book is "an unapologetic endorsement of freedom and all of its corollaries" (vii), but a central issue in the book is economic freedom and how it relates to those corollaries--individualism, morality, the rule of law, responsibility, private property, free markets, limited government, and enterprise. In keeping with this theme, the book is divided into sections that develop the idea of capitalism as the economic ideal and freedom as a necessary condition for capitalism. The readings develop the ideas of the importance of property and its relationship to human life, the role of government, systems of economic organization, the specific nature of the American system, and various elements in the marketplace. The editors introduce the ideas in each section and then present the readings which elaborate on the central issue. The book is a good and comprehensive overview of the ideas presented, shaped around the agenda of the Northwood Institute, founded in the late 1950s as "an important executive proving ground for young men and women seeking careers in American and global enterprise" (xiii). Many of the readings were written for a publication published by the Institute.

The authors describe Northwood as a college with campuses in three states and with nineteen extension centers across the country

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so have a damaging effect and a cost. He claims that aid postpones political reform, for instance, and then returns to the theme of the book as he notes that providing aid as has been done is part of a larger failure to understand freedom: "Why is it not understood that freedom is a prerequisite for sound allocation of resources, for widespread incentives to exist, and even for morality to prevail?" (81). Ayau makes a number of assumptions here which are echoed by other writers in this book and which are more accepted by them than clearly demonstrated, and one of these is that even if you accept the general view that freedom is necessary for these things to occur, the providing of foreign aid and similar programs are counter to freedom. These writers carry the idea of laissez-faire to such a degree that almost any action is viewed as antithetical to freedom. Milton Friedman addresses this idea most directly with his essay "The Economic Responsibility of Government" in which he states, "Government has no economic responsibility. Only people have responsibility and the government is not a person" (87). Friedman denies that the government is a collective, either. One problem with the argument that follows is inherent in the

Category: Philosophy - F