There are several profound lessons in the specific event that is
thought to be what triggered the spreading unrest in the Middle
East. Much can be learned from the particulars of what happened and
the fact that they have resonated so widely. The event and its
ramifications were the subject of a recent 60 Minutes
segment.
The following is how Wikipedia
summarized what happened:
Twenty-six year old Mohamed Bouazizi had been the sole income
earner in his extended family of eight. He operated a purportedly
unlicensed vegetable cart for seven years in Sidi Bouzid 190 miles
south of Tunis. On December 17, 2010 a policewoman confiscated his
cart and produce. Bouazizi, who had such an event happen to him
before, tried to pay the 10-dinar fine (a day’s wages or about 10
USD). In response the policewoman slapped him, spat in his face,
and insulted his deceased father. A humiliated Bouazizi then went
to the provincial headquarters in an attempt to complain to the
local municipality officials. He was refused an audience. Without
alerting his family, at 11:30 a.m. and within an hour of the
initial confrontation, Bouazizi returned to the headquarters,
doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire.
Public outrage quickly grew over the incident, leading to protests.
Bouazizi died on January 4, 2011.
Apparently a lot of people in the region identified with Mr.
Bouazizi’s frustrations. Anti-government demonstrations in Tunisia
inspired similar demonstrations in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen.
Dictators who have ruled for decades are wondering who’s next.
It would not be possible to generalize about the various
objectives of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in a number of
different countries. Replacing dictators with democratically
elected governments seems to be one goal. Political freedoms such
as freedom of speech and assembly are another likely
objective.
However, it was not specifically political freedom that
drove Mohamed Bouazizi to his desperate act. Rather, it was the
absence of economic freedom. His last words before setting
himself aflame were, “How do you expect me to make a
living?”
Economic freedom is at least as important as political
freedom, particularly in practical, day-to-day terms. Your freedoms
to earn a living and freely engage in voluntary exchange are at
least as important as your freedom to vote or freedom of
speech.
The government took from Mr. Bouazizi his ability to earn
a living. It arbitrarily took from him, and his customers as well,
the freedom to engage in voluntary exchange. That is obnoxious
interference with a most fundamental human endeavor. What could be
a more basic economic activity than operating a vegetable cart in a
village market?
It has been reported that the unemployment rate among
college graduates in Tunisia and Egypt is 50 percent. Dictatorships
smother the human spirit in numerous ways. Millions of people who
want to be gainfully employed cannot find jobs. Centrally
controlled economies are functionally incapable of delivering
authentic full employment.
Human rights are inextricably connected with property
rights. As Ayn Rand observed many years ago, “Just as man can’t
exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to
translate one’s rights into reality—to think, to work and keep the
results—which means the rights to property…. Without property
rights, no other rights are possible. The man who has no right to
the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life.” Rand
could well have had in mind someone like Mohamed Bouazizi when she
wrote those words.
Each year the Heritage Foundation computes a “property
rights index”:
A subcomponent of the Index of Economic Freedom, the property
rights index measures the degree to which a country’s laws protect
private property rights, and the degree to which its government
enforces those laws. The index also assesses the likelihood that
private property will be expropriated and analyzes the independence
of the judiciary, the existence of corruption within the judiciary,
and the ability of individuals and businesses to enforce
contracts.
In the Mideast, Israel has a property rights index of 70, the
highest in the region. Egypt’s index is 50, and Libya’s is 10. (The
U.S. has an index of 85.) Raising their property rights index
should be a top priority for the revolutionaries in the region.
What drove Mr. Bouazizi over the edge was the confiscation of his
property.
Lack of dependable property rights is a major deterrent to
investing. An investment is a current expenditure for a future
benefit. Reliable property rights are one of the best ways to
create a predictable future.
Whether or not economic freedom is important is one of the
dividing lines between liberals and conservatives. Liberals never
met a regulation they didn’t like. They’re strong advocates of rent
control, minimum-wage laws, and oil and gas drilling bans, for
example. They believe our problems result from too few regulations
rather than too many. They generally see nothing wrong with
countless diminutions of property rights.
In the Middle East, as well as other parts of the world,
an absolute prerequisite to true progress is the reduction of
government power. The dead hand of government regulation and
control is smothering human potential. If books such as The
Wealth of Nations, Capitalism and Freedom, and The Road to
Serfdom became widely read in the Mideast, it would greatly
improve the chances for meaningful and lasting progress.
I sincerely hope that people there as well as elsewhere
achieve their goal of democratically elected governments. However,
even if they do, it will not assure economic freedom. The U.S. and
other Western countries enjoy a high degree of democracy, but there
are still far too many limitations on economic freedom and property
rights.
Constrictions of economic freedom are destructive wherever
they occur. Petty tyrants like the policewoman and city officials
in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia exist almost everywhere in the world. They
maliciously and gleefully destroy wealth creation and the human
spirit.
Almost any significant endeavor you attempt in the U.S.
will necessitate having to deal with mindless regulations,
interminable delays, and brain-dead bureaucrats. An oil worker who
has no job because of the Obama administration’s illegal drilling
moratorium could well ask, “How do you expect me to make a
living?”
