Economics and the Indeterminacy of Freedom (1)

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Theoretical and empirical disagreements may create pockets of indeterminacy concerning the degree of freedom prevailing in a society.

Let us assume one half of the population believes that high levels of government deficit are necessary to ensure full employment, price stability, and thus an overall situation where millions of people (especially the poor) are considerably better off than they would be in the absence of theses measures. This is policy variant 1 (PV 1).

The other half of the population believes that measures suggested by PV 1 are sure to prevent full employment, price stability, and thus an overall situation where millions of people (especially the poor) are better off than they would be when theses measures are implemented. This is policy variant 2 (PV 2).

From the perspective of someone subscribing to PV 1, people's freedom is severely vitiated if implementation of PV 1 is prevented. For this means that opponents of PV (1) are allowed to take action that harms the entire population, severely interfering detrimentally with their living conditions and life chances.

From the point of view of people subscribing to PV 2 thwarting implementation of PV 1 and pursuit of PV 2 are necessary to make sure the freedom of millions of people is safeguarded, for contrariwise proponents of PV 1 are allowed to take action that harms the entire population, severely interfering detrimentally with their living conditions and life chances.

Whichever of the two PVs are eventually implemented, one half of the population will feel its freedom and their advantages derived from her are being defended, while the other half of the population will consider their freedom and their advantages derived from her to be significantly attacked.

Freedom emerges or disappears for large numbers of people, depending on their perceptions of economic policy alternatives.

Irrespective of what anybody's economic convictions suggest, freedom clearly produces a situation in which the freedom of half of the population is massively destroyed.

PS

In reality, matters are further complicated in that the contending policy paradigms may be internally contested.  Proponents of substantial government intervention may vigorously disagree with one another as to how to bring about the sought after outcome. They may be right or in error when accusing, say, quantitative easing, as foiling the very objective of the intervention. With the same objective in mind, some may insist on fiscal rather than monetary policies to get the economy going, and vice versa.

It is hard to see, how  from general conditions of freedom one would be able to derive the substantive and technical expertise needed to settle these issues in definitive manner.