It is impossible to splinter social freedom from economic freedom; the loss of economic freedom limits the individual’s choices in social freedom, while the limitation of social freedom curbs and renders useless the individual’s economic freedom.
Freedom is living within one’s means as he or she sees fit without harming another. No division exists between the freedom to earn and the freedom to spend; every economic and social freedom is impenetrably interwoven. As Isabel Paterson said, “the alleged distinction between ‘human rights’ and ‘property rights’ is verbal muddle; property rights are human rights. The true issue is between the individual and the collective.”
Unintended consequences trail good intentions. The curtailment of freedom is supposedly justified on the basis of national security, “the children,” morality, or anything else threatened by the bogeyman of decentralized individual action. Unfortunately, the expansion of government is the solitary alteration while the sphere of individual will becomes a permanent restriction. The triumph of the collectivist mindset is the absurd assumption of government as a universal panacea to societal ills, conveniently only caused by faceless greed and selfishness. The past half-century illustrates that the only more ridiculous government action than a military war is a war on societal ills. Perhaps is a re-adjustment to individual responsibility, accountability and improvement occurs, individuals will be close to authentic freedom and further from harmful collectivism.