Prosperity is Downstream of Freedom
To understand why freedom matters for prosperity, we have to recognize that nobody is simultaneously all wise, all knowing, and all prescient. Our altruism, rationality and foresight are severely bounded.
Therefore we cannot predict with any certainty what people will figure out if they have the freedom to experiment in whatever field they are naturally inclined to do so. The progress that humanity achieves is a result of trial and error by people who could not have been identified in advance. We get to know of the eventual successes but only ex post; ex ante we can’t. We don’t learn about the failures but we can be certain that there must be many more of them than the successes.
That fact requires the philosophical stance of epistemic humility. We have to be humble because our knowledge is limited, not just about the future but about the past and present too. Continue reading “The Concluding Part — 2”