Burlington High School

Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Devra Parker

The Freedoms of Equality
By JoEllen Muilenburg
12th grade

 

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish 

justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the 

general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity 

do ordain and establish this the constitution of the United States of America.”  

Freedom and Equality and have been part of America’s history since the Constitution was 

signed in 1787. All [Americans], however, have different social standing. They also have 

different incomes and different expenses.  So, how can it be said that if the people of 

America are…free then they are equal or if they are equal then they [are] free. It cannot.  

Free people cannot be equal…Picture this: two men, both white, middle-aged with wives and kids. One, however, goes to work everyday from nine to five in his office, making a decent enough living. The other sits in his cozy little cardboard box. Are they “equal”? No, they are not. By definition equality is this: “Having the same quantity, measure, or value as another.” True, though, our government DID sign a document back in 1787 that said all men are created equal. Men, however, are finicky creatures, and often create their own inequality. We as humans have the rights to choose our own destiny, and by having this right, we can choose to work hard and earn money, or we can choose to do nothing. The people who work hard to get what they want most certainly deserve the things they have.

People who choose NOT to work hard, however, don’t deserve what the hard working people get. Would it be fair to give both the hard workers and the bums (who truly don’t care) the same amount of pay? No. Would it make sense to give a truly talented sports player the same amount of pay as the other player that can’t quite reach that same amount of talent? No. The people that deserve more should get more. Those who don’t care, and don’t try, get only what they deserve. Again, it all comes back to the choices we make as humans. We choose our own jobs, we choose whether we drive a Porsche or a minivan, and it could very well dwindle down to the choice of what one eats for lunch. Income and expenses can never equal out. The only way we could ever be both equal and free would be to ensure that everyone all over the world had the same income and same expenses. You could only make this possible by forcing everyone to work the same way, live the same way, and even go so far as to make everyone THINK the same way. I say this because if someone could make everyone’s pay and expenses equal, the people would go back to being unequal in a matter of hours. Why? Because some people save every cent while other spend lavishly. People aren’t unequal because they are lesser as human beings, but they can be less valuable speaking in economic terms.

Equal people are not free… If we were, in fact, made suddenly equal, how long would it last? What would we have to give up? What would we be willing to sacrifice in order to reach equality amongst the people? When would we be willing to say, “No longer am I willing to be paid more than Joe Smith because I am smarter than him?”  In order for us to be treated equally, we would have to get rid of the freedoms that have been given to us.  As I said before, we have the rights to make our own decisions. The only way one could force the masses into equality would be to control every single aspect of a person’s life. Every single person would have to give up his mind, essentially. One wouldn’t be able to think for himself if he wanted equality. He would be forced to work just as hard as the guy next to him; no more, no less, everything would have to be exactly the same. He would be required to save the same amount of money, spend the same amount of money, and so on.  To keep true, honest, TOTAL equality, someone would have to control everything, right down to the amount of food one eats in a week, how much one spends on entertainment, and how much is spent on electricity and other such necessary things.  In essence, we couldn’t even go to the doctor unless we all had the same illness, insurance, doctor, and medicine prescribed; otherwise, the equality created would be thrown off balance.  What kind of life would that be for people who are used to freedom…? I’m not sure one could call living under [the] conditions, as described above, a life. If we did, in fact, make everyone equal, we would have to enforce the type of law which our nation stands against, and that is one ruled by fear and money.

So the free are not equal and the equal are not free. Personal responsibility is not based on equality, but more or less giving to others what they cannot have, making the country of America a more beautiful place. America will never be completely free or equal; that’s just the way it is. To ask for equality now, in a land that is just beginning to learn the true meaning of “togetherness”, is ludicrous. We are as equal as we’re ever going to be, but we’re still individual human beings with our own personalities, wants and needs. We can only accomplish what we set our minds to, only succeed in areas of…significance [to us], and because we all have different interests, then we will all succeed in different ways, and in that, we are equal.

Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading

Q1- Why does Machan use "steal" in his statement: "Private property solves this problem, but was abandoned a long time ago when taxes reached the point where we can steal our way to being provided with all sorts of things we desire, never mind thinking about paying for them or long-range budgeting."?

As a country, we are economically in situation where we all feel as though it is the government’s job to provide us with such valuables as public sports, and the places and equipment to actually play such sports.  However, what we don’t realize is that by taking the funding that is spread out among hundreds of thousands of organizations that use up this money, we cannot afford to keep funding all of them. By expecting the local, state and federal government to provide us with these programs we are “stealing” the possessions that we desire. Yet we never contribute more of our money to help pay for such programs or budget the nation’s tax money to go to the organizations that really matter, such as paying off national debt and getting more money to the nation’s school.

Q2- Machan said: "For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it." Give two examples of this from your personal experience.

When I and only I had done a certain assignment right in fifth grade, and my teacher, Mrs. Podraberac, gave only me the snack food. I felt like I was the greatest person in the class, and because of my single victory, I will never forget it. No one else had done so.

I had also contributed to a homeless man’s wellbeing in Topeka. There was a jam of cars all the way to the ramp, and down it to the highway. This man, dirty and unshaven, stood at the very top of the ramp on the corner, where as many as twenty cars ignored him, passing him as if he wasn’t even there. I felt like a million bucks when I went up to him and was the first person to actually give him money for food. After I had done so, though, I witnessed a lot of people in other cars begin searching through their purses. I suppose I was a reminder of their conscience, and what a good citizen is supposed to do.

Q3- Do you agree with Machan that "...everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill; as in families many attendants are often less useful than a few."? Give an objective example of this.

When you think that your parents are supposed to pick up your little brother or sister, and then you get home, only to find that, alas, your sibling was supposed to be picked up by you, and now you are in trouble.

Are We Going the Way of Rome? (Lawrence Reed)
Q4- State Kershner's First Law.  Do you agree or disagree and why?

“When a self-governing people confer upon their government, the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is bare.”

I agree, because once you give the government the right to take from some and not all equally, they will neither stop nor be fair about the process, possibly until no one has any money left to take, while the one’s that are not being taxed are just getting richer. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

Q5- What industry was the first to be taken over by government in both ancient Rome and the USA?

Transportation was the first industry to be taken over by the government in both ancient Rome and USA.

Q6- Is cheapened money the cause or the outcome of inflation? Explain.

Cheapened money can be both the cause and the outcome of inflation.  Our money is cheapened because of inflation. On the other hand when our money is cheapened it causes inflation.

Q7- How did the Edict of 301 affect Rome's economy?

Edict 301 did not help Rome economy at all. It established a system of price control and comprehensive wages.

Liberty and Individual Responsibility (Dwight R. Lee)
Q8- Lee claims that individuals could be "entirely independent of others" except for what? Explain.

Scarcity is the one thing that keeps us from being completely independent of others.

Q9- Describe the dilemma concerning rules as discussed by Lee.

If there were no rules everyone would be free to do as they please. People would not be able to safely own or possess anything without the risk of losing it being much higher.

Q10- Why is the concept of private property crucial to freedom?

Our personal property is what keeps us motivated to work to earn the things that we want in our life. If our private property was taken away our motivation to work would be lost and our government would have to take away our freedoms in order to keep us working.

Lawrence Reed's testimony before the U.S. Senate Budget Commtitee.
 

Q11- Argue both pro and con that in his testimony Lawrence Reed was advocating compassion and aid for the poor.

Lawrence Reed was advocating compassion and aid for the poor when he discussed principle one. He said that not everyone should make the same amount of money no matter what the job is, yet all should work and get paid for what they do.

Q12- "If people are free, they will not earn equal incomes; conversely, show me a people who have equal incomes and I will show you a people who are not free." Explain in your own words Mr. Reed's meaning.

If people earned equal incomes and had equal expenses then the government would have to control every aspect of our lives and we would not be free. Also if people are not free then they will not be equal because someone will always save and some will always spend.

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