Liberalism and why it matters

Back in the day the struggle for civil rights was important and the generation of our parents struggled to attain many of the things we take for gratned (depending on which country we live in). The existing "liberal" parties have in a way forgotten the liberal dream. In a way both liberals and social democrats are to blame.

We have all come to understand business and social interests under the lense of a rather Marxist dialectic. As a struggle of opposites which we try to synthethise. This is a particularly dangerous falacy, specialy since more often than not individual rights go sacrificed for the "common good". Though Americans have proven that the final statement in the universal declaration of human rights is of the utmost importance, namely that no interpretation of the rights therein stated should lead to the violation of the rights of others.

A very important requirement for the existence of a liberal democracy is the rule of law. Another important predisposition of liberal thought is that we are all equal under the law. We should all have the possibility to pursue our dreams and aspirations and we are also each responsible for our mistakes, and should thus be held accountable.

Under no interpretation of the previous statement does one conclude that since I'm better off I should pay for you. Yes, you have the right not to starve to death, and be treated with dignity, but that does not translate to the right of having a TV and enough money to go on vacations at my expense. Nor should I be able to live at anyone's expense.

The definition of dignity might vary depending on where I stand, and speciall if I were the one who'd receive support. In such a case I refer to the statement that no interpretation of my righs should lead to the violation of your rights. So there's a caveat to the freedom to pursue your dreams, and that is that you alone are responsible for your failure.

That's where our perception of business is damaging. Specially since the same perception of a yuxtaposition of interests permeates the way business views social problems. So business sees social development as a goal for the state and undermining for business (not always but often enough), and the more "socially" oritented view business as a provider of resources for solving social problems. One that should preferably be squeezed dry.

Nothing further from the truth. It is the expansion of liberal economic princpiles and globalization which have given us the age of abundance in which we live. We now have the resources to fund a team of expensive physicists to find the Higg's boson and in the same decade cut world poverty by half.

Liberalism doesn't seek to reduce taxes, but rather sets the conditions in which taxation can be mantained at a lower rate by limiting the scope of what government does and reducing bureacracy. Any party which forgets this will fail, and as well it should. The Republicans have forgotten this to embrace more radical tea party conservatives, the German FDP squandered their popularity to promot tax reduction without ever doing anything for individual freedoms, or to curb bureacracy, increase government transparency, or rather without ever doing anything else much.

What liberalism needs is a new generation of leaders who are willing to state the dream the way Martin Luther King did. Who realize that the struggle for individual freedom is never over, and that it is important for the improvement of society, and understand what role government needs to play. The fact that guaranteeing individual freedoms under the rule of law on the basis of liberalism happens to be better for business should be colateral for liberal parties. Specially if the electorate is used to the entitlements of the wellfare state.