Thanks to Bob Luddy, I?ve had the chance recently to read an excellent book by Leonard Read titled Vision. (Watch Luddy?s recent presentation to E.A. Morris Leadership Program fellows, and you?ll learn why the book is still available.)
The slim volume contains a series of essays extolling the virtues of ?the freedom way of life.? Among the most inspiring passages is Read?s description of the best form of government, one wholly unrecognizable to those watching the actions of our current crop of officials:
In an ideal society, its agency would act on behalf of one and all alike. Ideally, this would be limited government, nearly the opposite of what we now have. The agency would be strictly limited as it was following the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The type of social agency that once did and can again grace the lives of Americans is limited to:
Invoking a common justice ? no special privilege for anyone.
Keeping the peace, foreign and domestic ? let anyone do anything that?s peaceful.
Defending against all fraud, violence, predation, misrepresentation ? the coercive taking from some and giving to other forbidden.
Freedom to choose, be it occupation, hours of work, goods and services produced, at what prices and to whom sold or exchanged ? laissez-faire, that is, a fair field and no favoritism.
In the ideal society, government cannot extend welfare of prosperity to this or that group of special-privilege seekers. Why? It is so limited that it has nothing on hand to dispense nor the power to take from some and give to others.
