What Is A Just Society That Maximizes Liberty?

The principle of lassaiz-faire is advocated by many libertarians. They hold that freedom from government will maximize personal liberty.  Critics of lassaiz-faire argue for a welfare state that extends personal liberty to those who do not benefit from forms of capitalism that lead to a maldistribution of income.  This article suggests that neither of these systems produce the outcomes that are desired in a democratic state.  The goal of a democratic state is to maximize personal liberty and political liberty.  A capitalist economy is not consistent with the objective of democracy if it does not promote both forms of liberty.  (Liberty and Equality were two of the pillars of the French Revolution)

The basic problem of a capitalist economy, with extremely high income inequality, is that it produces political inequality.  Those with great wealth exert a disproportionate influence over government.  For example, they will oppose tax policies and welfare policies that redistribute income, or estate taxes that deter them from passing their accumulated wealth to their heirs. The concentration of wealth increases over time along with a decline in political liberty.  The welfare state cannot function under conditions of extreme political inequality.

An ownership society is proposed as an alternative to  laissez-faire and the welfare state. The ownership of income producing assets, and human capital (education), must be more equally distributed in order to satisfy the goals of a democratic state which maximizes personal liberty and political liberty.  The post war years in the US came close to satisfying this goal.  For example, the GI bill enabled returning veterans to obtain college educations.  This helped to grow the economy and to distribute the outputs of the economy more equally.  We have witnessed a gradual erosion of those gains in personal liberty and political liberty over the last 40 years.  It will take a long time to restore democracy, and a form of capitalism that is consistent with democracy, but the idea of an ownership society may provide the vision that is needed.