The Grand Inquisitor: Freedom & Responsibility
People can be strong advocates of freedom in the abstract, an ideal in concept. But do people really want freedom and responsibility in practice?
Chapter 36 of my book, “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible,” refers to the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky in “The Brothers Karamozov.” Dostoevsky conjures a character, the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, who recognized a second coming of Jesus. The Inquisitor immediately had Jesus arrested and visited him in prison to explain that people don’t want what Jesus has to offer.
“You came empty-handed,” admonished the Inquisitor, “with nothing but some vague promise of freedom, which, in their simple-mindedness and innate responsibility, men cannot even conceive and which they fear and dread, for there has never been anything more difficult for man and for human society to bear than freedom…I tell You once more that man has no more pressing, agonizing need to find someone to whom he can hand over as quickly as possible the gift of freedom…”
Can this really be true? People really don’t want freedom, despite idealistic claims to the contrary?
Test this by asking your friends: “What should be the legal minimum wage?” Start with $50 an hour and gradually go lower by $5 increments. “Should the legal minimum wage be $50 an hour? $45? $40? $35? $30? $25? $20? $15? $10? $5? No legal minimum wage?” In all my 50 years of teaching, I’ve had fewer than 1% raise their hands for the last option.
All of these students, and I dare say most all of their teachers as well, would claim to value personal freedom and a free society as an ideal. But in practice, they don’t want freedom for others…and possibly not even for themselves.
Then follow up with this question: “Should people be allowed to do volunteer work for no pay?” Roughly 1% say “No!” and the rest say “Yes!” Of course, all work is volunteer, whether for wages or not. But when one says “to do volunteer work for no pay,” it is considered a noble gesture for charity, for a cause, or for the experience of an internship. Most assuredly, politicians are the first to praise the selflessness of their unpaid campaign volunteers.
Is this a contradiction? “People shouldn’t be allowed to work for less than the legal minimum wage!” Yet, “People should be allowed to work for no wage!” Who is to decide which work and what compensation is worthy and allowable?
Presumably there is always some benefit to voluntary action, even at a low wage, or people wouldn’t do it. People even do work at their own expense. For example, academic internships are really undertaken for negative wages because students are required to pay college tuition to receive certification of “unpaid” experiences.
This essay is too brief to examine the details of how a legal minimum wage uses coercive measures to benefit some at the expense of others. Economist Walter Williams called these measures “The New Jim Crow Laws” and gives thorough justification in his book, “The State Against Blacks.”
Nor will I attempt an examination of the perpetual erosion of wages by the monetary inflation of central banks. But I do wish to focus on the question of whether people really want personal freedom and responsibility.
Working for a wage is voluntary behavior between consenting adults, yet there is a suspicion that people aren’t smart enough to make those decisions for themselves. Either workers are assumed to be too stupid or employers are too greedy to make those contracts without the oversight of a paternal government official to mandate their behavior.
And that brings us back to the original point of freedom and responsibility. Do people really want personal freedom and responsibility for themselves and for others…or not?
About the Author
Ken Schoolland is an Associate Professor of Economics at Hawaii Pacific University. He authored “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey,” a hilariously thought-provoking book that is Northwood’s Fall 2024 Omniquest selection. Omniquest is a university-wide program in which provocative and challenging books are selected and the themes of those books are explored throughout a particular semester or academic year. During this fall’s Northwood Freedom Seminar, Schoolland came to campus Oct. 1 to explore how throughout history, humor has been an effective means of undermining tyranny. His presentation can be watched online here. Readers can email Professor Schoolland at Ken.schoolland@gmail.com. The above essay was included in the December 2024 edition of When Free to Choose, Northwood’s signature publication dedicated to promoting free enterprise. Subscribe for free here.