Here are two letters that I sent recently to the Wall Street Journal:
24 October 2008
To the Editor:
Robert Inlow writes that “Liberals have been responsible for gaining women equal rights” (Letters, October 24). To make such a claim is akin to crediting the diplomats who negotiate an enemy-country’s military surrender for doing all the hard work that won the war. Capitalism’s ethos of freedom of contract – and its creation of inexpensive washing machines, vacuum cleaners, disinfectants, and other household appliances and products – have done far more to promote women’s rights than has any “liberal” crusader or politician.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
And
To the Editor:
Rober Inlow, relying on a dictionary definition, praises modern “liberals” (as they are mistakenly, if widely, called in the English-speaking world) for being “tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others” (Letters, October 24).
Huh?
Has Mr. Inlow forgotten about the so-called “liberals” who want to restrict people’s ability to smoke and to eat trans-fats? How does he account for “liberals'” intolerance of workers who wish voluntarily to agree to work for less than the minimum-wage? And what’s his explanation for “liberals'” officious insistence that individuals cannot be trusted to provide for their own retirements?
Modern “liberals” – although tolerant on a few important fronts – generally are eager to regulate, mandate, and otherwise intolerantly order ordinary people about. True liberals in the tradition of Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek abhor such officiousness.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
