This is the most fundamental and concise presentation of this idea I have seen yet.  An impressive, short educational video on the Philosophy of Liberty.  When you look at policies necessarily requiring the use of coercion to solve problems, you see how government actions are contrary to the principles of liberty. The one thing that ought to be added is the idea that the knowledge, wisdom and APPROPRIATE information associated with perceived problems are dispersed among the people of this planet. Only liberty and free markets allow that information to be exchanged and revealed appropriately. Liberty is freedom restrained only by mutual respect and self-responsibility; free markets only exist where governments are limited within their proper scope—protection of life, liberty, private property and the enforcement of voluntary contracts. Period. Beyond that scope, governments become the very thing from which they were designed to protect us.
 
It may seem to make sense that master plans are the answer, especially the bigger the problem. However those commanded to implement “the plan” cannot know the complexity and details appropriate for satisfactory endeavors. Nobody can know this. The “experts” and “know-it-alls” are not aware that the bigger picture involves real human individuals, their values, their energies, their very lives at times. Only individuals can work out the details that master plans must ignore.
 
Crises are caused by the use of coercion, either by governments themselves or by their allowing initial coercion to exist and continue. But they are often blamed on the “free market”. From the countless intrusions of government previously, from every department imaginable, a free market does not exist as properly defined above. Never did. Not knowing or understanding how and why markets work to solve problems—usually before they become problems—allows people to cling to the fears, envy and blame. The “logical” conclusion is to let the know-it-alls further draw us toward more centralized plans and their accompanying centralized mistakes. The wisdom, knowledge and information already present to appropriately deal with whatever problems arise are too quickly subverted and preempted by the plans, and not allowed to reveal their more appropriate solutions.
 
It might seem a leap of faith not to trust in the system, but rather to trust in the process. But government is a man-made system. Markets are processes not created by man; they are simply a product of his exchanges. Both are fallible, as they deal with human actions.  But the wisdom that arises from the process of billions of voluntary exchanges—the market—is something that nobody can neither foresee nor completely comprehend, and it accesses millions of times more appropriate information than individuals, departments, or associations, regardless of whether they believe or sound like they know what they are talking about. An analogy is comparing the market to the subconscious mind, and the government to the conscious mind. The former guides us in ways we cannot comprehend or articulate, while the latter is often arrogantly claiming to have the total picture.
 
Understanding the philosophy empowers us so that we take back the sense of having our own plans, hopes, dreams, rather than allowing others to make them for us.  Knowledge is power.  We are living in an era of awaking our personal power and personal empowerment.  Please enjoy this brief video.

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