Government Control – Freedom vs Safety
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
– Benjamin Franklin
The debate between freedom and safety has been a long-lasting debate. The question is how much of our freedom do we give up for safety? I have created a model based on the budget maximizing bureaucracy model, to determine is the optimal or equilibrium of freedom to safety balance. First will go over some assumptions of the model.
Assumptions:
The Model – Government Control Maximizing Model:
This model shows Control on the x-axis, which is the amount of control the government has over its people. Control is gained by rules, regulations, and laws passed by the government. On the y axis is Utility, or the amount of value you gain.
When there is no government, or Control is equal to zero, then you have quite a lot of freedom and still some safety but still the least overall safety according to the model. When you have a massive government with a lot of control, similar to an authoritarian government, you have the least amount of freedom but the maximum amount of safety.
Increasing Control
As we increase government control of the people our safety increases but we pay for that safety through our freedom, thus freedom decreases and safety increases. We give more control to the government and give up our freedom for safety by passing laws that are beneficial for society. Like making murder illegal, this law is beneficial for society because now people are safer by not being murdered but we pay for this safety by not being able to murder people.
Although it seems weird that being able to murder would be considered a Freedom that we give up for safety because most people don’t want to murder anyone, it is a freedom we give up, nonetheless.
This is why increasing control of the government is beneficial because we give up very little freedom (the right to murder) to gain a lot of safety (not being murdered). This law is a benefit for society because the safety we gain outweighs the freedom we lose. Although that does not mean we should give the government all the control they want.
Point z
Increasing government control is beneficial up until you reach point z. This is because you have increasing returns to scale up until this point. Before point z you will allow more government control, you will gain safety at the cost of freedom. But the amount of safety you gain is greater than the amount of freedom you give up. Thus, at point z you will have the greatest amount of safety for the best value of freedom.
After point z you have decreasing returns to scale. After point z you will lose more freedom than you gain in safety. Although you lose more freedom than you gain in safety the aggregate freedom lost is still less than the aggregate safety gained. This is true up until the blue perpendicular line. This line indicates where area A is equal to area B. Or the aggregate freedom lost is equal to aggregate safety gained.
After the blue perpendicular line not only does the amount of freedom lost greater than the amount of safety gained but the aggregate freedom lost is greater than the aggregate safety gained. This is the point when the increased control from the government is noticeably a net negative.
Optimal Government Control
The optimal government control is at point z. The location of this point is determined by the citizens of the government. There can be an argument that we are always moving towards this point but never at it; as well as an argument for that we are at a constant state of equilibrium as are always at point z that is constantly changing as government control changes.
I believe that we are always striving towards this point of equilibrium z but never at it. Another interesting benefit of this model is that you can locate where others think point z is based on their political views, to a degree (this is more of a conceptual thought).
If someone believes that we need more government spending and social programs, you can assume they believe we are on the left side of point z. That more government control will lead us to a more optimal society.
While someone who believes that the government has too many regulations and that we need a freer market then you can assume they think we are on the right side of point z. That we need less government control to be more prosperous.
Overall vs Optimal
One of the most important things to note about this model is why is blue line important for us? The government has the ability to convince its citizens that we need more safety at the cost of more freedom up until this point. They can easily convince us up until then because the overall net benefit of government control is still positive. Don’t mix this up with point z though, that is the point of optimal freedom for safety.
This is what makes the government so dangerous. It is the only entity that can coerce others into doing what it wants and can easily convince its citizens to give up more freedom and control. The government and its citizens are playing a game with each other, one is trying to gain more control while the other is trying to prevent it. Hopefully, this model helped you understand the complex relationship between the government and its people and Freedom vs Safety.