That’s the point Sheldon Richman makes in his Freeman column today.

For many decades, statists have argued that “economic freedom” is less important than  more “fundamental” freedoms. Voting, for example, is treated as “fundamental” whereas the right to buy and sell goods or property is “merely” an economic freedom that government can curtail in the supposed public interest. Richman argues that this distinction is logically unsustainable. It serves, however, as intellectual cover for government actions that favor some people over others.