40 Years in Review - Government Larger, More Freedom Too!

Don · Dec 3, 2008

As part of a 40th Anniversary retrospective, this article in Reason Online makes a good case for the argument that although government has grown over the last 40 years, freedom and the standard of living have increased much more.

According to the Census Bureau, income per capita adjusted for inflation has doubled in the four decades since 1968, from $13,374 to $26,804.

There’s a better measure of living standards than raw wealth: consumption. By this measure, the United States is also doing very well. Luxury goods that few could afford in 1968 are now standard in most households, including poor ones...in 2005 a full 85 percent of households that are classified as poor by the Census Bureau have air conditioning (compared to only 36 percent in 1971); 97 percent have a color television (compared to 40 percent in 1971); 40 percent have an automatic dishwasher (as opposed to 20 percent in 1971); and almost 100 percent own a refrigerator (a 25 percent increase over 1970).

On the down side, government has grown by leaps and bounds as well.

Look no further than your morning routine. The federal government has put its imprimatur on the mattress on your bed (through the Consumer Product Safety Commission). The Federal Communications Commission regulates the transmission and content of your favorite morning show. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, regulate the coffee you drink and the sugar you add to it. The USDA regulates the milk you pour in the coffee, as well as cheese, butter, and other dairy products you might eat for breakfast. And the FDA has its say about the shampoo, soap, and toothpaste you use with water that’s regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Then there is the explosion in security measures. Airline travel regulations, increased surveillance, and growing databases are a few examples of government’s expansion in our lives. Add in state and local regulations—on smoking, eating transfats, or labeling menus—and you can get the feeling that we’ve lost our freedom.

The War on Drugs has increased our prison population almost fourfold.

In a 2004 paper, the Princeton economist Ilyana Kuziemko and the University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt detailed how drug offenders now make up over 30 percent of all inmates in state and federal prisons, compared to less than 8 percent in 1980. The number of inmates with drug crimes as their most serious offense has risen from 24,000 in 1980 to near 400,000 today, a 15-fold increase.

Social freedoms, on the other hand, have increased greatly.

Looking at the whole social picture, it’s hard to tell blacks, Jews, gays, and women that they are less free today than they were in 1968. As a woman, I can enter and leave the work world freely, whether I have kids or not. I can get an abortion, file for divorce, enter into a lesbian relationship, marry a black guy, or have several lovers, all without worrying about legal consequences (or being drummed out of polite society).

So what's your take? Are we more free today than we were 40 years ago?

Compared to 8 years ago?

Compared to 4 years from now?

robeiae · Dec 3, 2008

It's all about the internet, dammit! If you can't surf for porn and bomb-making supplies, you aren't free!

William Haskins · Dec 3, 2008

As a woman, I can enter and leave the work world freely, whether I have kids or not. I can get an abortion, file for divorce, enter into a lesbian relationship, marry a black guy, or have several lovers

if i were a woman, this would be my weekends.

Plot Device · Dec 3, 2008

Perhaps social freedoms have grown. But I believe civil liberties have diminished.

willfulone · Dec 3, 2008

more
more
who knows....

William Haskins · Dec 3, 2008

Plot Device said:
Perhaps social freedoms have grown. But I believe civil liberties have diminished.

explain.

Albedo · Dec 3, 2008

I love how they completely miss making the connection between increasing government regulation and better standards of living. (Really? The existence of standards agencies offends libertarians now? Oh Reason mag...)

Joe270 · Dec 3, 2008

explain.

The storks fly out of the cabbage patch in the morning, and drop the babies down the chimney to the waiting mommy and daddy. Got it?

robeiae · Dec 4, 2008

Albedo said:
I love how they completely miss making the connection between increasing government regulation and better standards of living. (Really? The existence of standards agencies offends libertarians now? Oh Reason mag...)

More people have color tv's and cellphones because of increasing government regulation? I'm missing that connection, too. What is it?

AceTachyon · Dec 4, 2008

robeiae said:
It's all about the internet, dammit! If you can't surf for porn and bomb-making supplies, you aren't free!

Obama's AG pick (Holder?) wants to regulate that, doesn't he?

AceTachyon · Dec 4, 2008

Oh--but don't we want government to grow larger? Everyone around me keeps saying that government needs to step in and take care of us.

You know, tell us how to act, what to read, who to marry, etc.

Albedo · Dec 4, 2008

robeiae said:
More people have color tv's and cellphones because of increasing government regulation? I'm missing that connection, too. What is it?

More people have color TVs that don't explode because of regulation. Or more pertinently, kids toys that don't contain gamma-hydroxybutyric acid. What exactly is the objection Reason mag has to the existence of the Consumer Product Safety Commission? It's definitely not in their article. We're just meant to accept it as part of the mantra of "Big Gov Bad".

AceTachyon · Dec 4, 2008

Albedo said:
More people have color TVs that don't explode because of regulation. Or more pertinently, kids toys that don't contain gamma-hydroxybutyric acid. What exactly is the objection Reason mag has to the existence of the Consumer Product Safety Commission? It's definitely not in their article. We're just meant to accept it as part of the mantra of "Big Gov Bad".

...um...There's nothing in the article about objecting to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Or did I miss a paragraph somewhere?

icerose · Dec 4, 2008

AceTachyon said:
...um...There's nothing in the article about objecting to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Or did I miss a paragraph somewhere?

I believe this is the paragraph they are referring to.

Look no further than your morning routine. The federal government has put its imprimatur on the mattress on your bed (through the Consumer Product Safety Commission). The Federal Communications Commission regulates the transmission and content of your favorite morning show. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, regulate the coffee you drink and the sugar you add to it. The USDA regulates the milk you pour in the coffee, as well as cheese, butter, and other dairy products you might eat for breakfast. And the FDA has its say about the shampoo, soap, and toothpaste you use with water that’s regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Albedo · Dec 4, 2008

AceTachyon said:
...um...There's nothing in the article about objecting to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Or did I miss a paragraph somewhere?

It’s not hard to point to other areas where government has grown and liberty yielded. Look no further than your morning routine. The federal government has put its imprimatur on the mattress on your bed (through the Consumer Product Safety Commission).

First, they came for our mattresses...and I said nothing.

AceTachyon · Dec 4, 2008

Ah. Thanks.

i did miss a paragraph. Or at least part of the paragraph.

AncientEagle · Dec 4, 2008

AceTachyon said:
Oh--but don't we want government to grow larger? Everyone around me keeps saying that government needs to step in and take care of us.

You know, tell us how to act, what to read, who to marry, etc.

That's odd...none of the people around me have ever said that.

James81 · Dec 4, 2008

Was this article supposed to be a joke?

Civil liberties have increased, but we are absolutely NOT more free.

We have the government telling private business owners what to do with their businesses (you can't allow smoking in your private business, sorry), we need a license for EVERYTHING (cars, hunting and fishing--why do i need a license to hunt and fish again?, etc.), you can't ride in a car without a seatbelt (why?), trans fats have been banned from some restaraunts (why?), etc.

Everywhere you turn, you've got people sacrificing their freedoms. What one hand giveth, the other one taketh away.

Tirjasdyn · Dec 4, 2008

robeiae said:
It's all about the internet, dammit! If you can't surf for porn and bomb-making supplies, you aren't free!

Go to the library....or a high school.

AceTachyon · Dec 4, 2008

AncientEagle said:
That's odd...none of the people around me have ever said that.

Prop. 8 in California now tells us who can and can't get married.

Some of my friends say government sponsored healthcare is the best solution so that everyone has insurance.

Word has it (I'll have to find the source) that some folks want government to bail out folks who are suffering in the housing market.

James81 · Dec 4, 2008

AceTachyon said:
Some of my friends say government sponsored healthcare is the best solution so that everyone has insurance.

I never understood why people fought this so much.

It's one thing if the ONLY insurance you can get is through the government. What people actually propose, though, is something completely different.

Which is introducing the government as a provider of health insurance at lower costs so that people who aren't offered insurance can actually have insurance through the government. The rest of us who DO have insurance, can keep our plans. Not onlythat, but it would keep our plans CHEAP because no one is going to buy expensive health insurance when the government is offering it for much much cheaper.

Williebee · Dec 4, 2008

no one is going to buy expensive health insurance when the government is offering it for much much cheaper.

The history of the free market economy would indicate otherwise. (Otherwise Rolls, Lexus, etc. would have long since gone away.) Some say the key word in the phrase is "free". I think it's "market", and marketing.

And then there is the aspect of the government going into business against private/public corporations. Oh course, that's pretty much what the bailout is doing, isn't it?

James81 · Dec 4, 2008

Williebee said:
The history of the free market economy would indicate otherwise. (Otherwise Rolls, Lexus, etc. would have long since gone away.) Some say the key word in the phrase is "free". I think it's "market", and marketing.

And then there is the aspect of the government going into business against private/public corporations. Oh course, that's pretty much what the bailout is doing, isn't it?

Healthcare and the bailout are two separate issues.

On the issue of HEALTHCARE, yes the government should be involved in providing general healthcare to all of it's citizens. A government who promotes the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" should have an obligation to see that the first one (life) is perserved and the third one (pursuit of happiness) isn't hindered by people who are in poor health.

mscelina · Dec 4, 2008

Pretty much. Since the initial 'bailout' is being used for purposes other than what we were led to believe, now this is growing into a situation where the government has arbitrarily taken upon itself the ability to decide which businesses survive (and how) and which ones will be allowed to fail. I'm fairly certain this power was never mandated in any way, shape or form by the Constitution.

Williebee · Dec 4, 2008

Healthcare and the bailout are two separate issues.

Fair enough, but I'm referring to the "business" of healthcare, -- insurance, pharmaceuticals, equipment, and related support industries.

If a generic is just as good as the name brand, why do people still buy the name brand? That's where the marketing comes in.

ETA: Well, that was just all over the place. sorry. Two separate thoughts.

40 Years in Review - Government Larger, More Freedom Too!

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