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Originally Posted by B~E  Well then, go ahead and argue your point. How is the concept that people are capable of trading as free rational agents on a free market, somehow essential to the concept that an individual's freedom is the most important value a government should defend and uphold?
Heck, I think that I could even argue that if left alone on a free market to compete against other rational agents, some individuals will find their freedom severely reduced against other, more powerfull agents. |
It's a matter of the intimate relationship between economic liberalism and social liberalism - one cannot separate the two. Someone else directing economic activity, the only current alternative we have to economic liberalism as a way through which resources are allocated, means that whatever authority controls this allocation controls the limited means we have to meet our ends. Thus, whoever controls the limited means we have to meet our ends has to decide which ends are satisfied and which are not. This decision sets which values are rated higher and which are rated lower and essentially sets what we should believe. It takes away the power from the individual and gives it from the community - hence, it is no longer individual freedom.
You can argue that in competitive capitalism the price we have to pay will deprive a member of society of their freedom (which is my guess as to what you are referring to, though I really don't know). Price as an obstacle to freedom within competitive capitalism, however, is not due to our chosen end being disapproved of, but rather by no conscious will, and thus leaves us open to other options of choosing our end - a choice not available if our ends are disapproved of in direction of allocation.
In short, without economic liberalism a person becomes a means through which authority can meet the 'general welfare' of the community rather than an individual who uses his likes and dislikes to govern his own life. I do not mean to underplay the importance of social liberalism, I merely want to get the point across that economic liberalism is a prerequisite to social liberalism.