The Most Free Era

[Bold Standard]

I think in his lecture at Westpoint, Dr. Peikoff sites the post-civil war period of 19th century America as the most free (in general).

Edited June 24, 2006 by Bold Standard

[raptix]

I should of bought that DVD, instead I'm getting a Democracy vs Socialism debate from Peter Schwartz imported from AynRandBookstore (I live in Australia) -- I thought it was an Internet copy (streaming) just like the 33hr introduction to Objectivism course I bought -- yet when they e-mailed me to ask me to verify my billing address I just said "yeah send it to X" in hindsight, I wish I got the Westpoint DVD, the DIM hypothesis set & the America at War series.

I think in his lecture at Westpoint, Dr. Peikoff sites the post-civil war period of 19th century America as the most free (in general).

It just turns out that this period was either during or just after Abraham Lincoln took control of the money supply and made sure there was no fractional reserve banking, he created the Greenback, which contrary to the terms popular use, does not exist today, it was a 100% full reserve centralized note for the people, the coin created by government, without a central bank, taking the control away from moneychangers and back to the people, however crappy this seems (as a free banking system to me is ideally the privately decentralized issuance of notes pegged to gold by banks) -- I think the greenback essentially was freer than a central banking system -- it seems every president who sets out to destroy the bank gets asssassinated; and if I remember correctly the man who shot lincoln said he was bought by european central bankers.

[punk]

I was told that the freest time the world has ever had was in the early 19th century and especially the late 18th century in the US. Is this true? He argued this was because there was an absence of monopolies and government control. I thought the mid and late 19th century US was the freest era. However this was dismissed with the idea that monopolies and trusts etc in oil, shipping etc made it less free. Furthermore it was said that competition was destroyed, prices increased and entrepreneurship in 'old industries' e.g. oil was very difficult. What are your views on this?

I suspect the slaves would have differed with the view of 18th and early 19th century America being that free.

Post-bellum Jim Crow laws tend to discourage one from viewing the pre-Civil Rights US as being free.

I'd be inclined to argue that for the individual the US today is the freest it has ever been.

[Bold Standard]

I'd be inclined to argue that for the individual the US today is the freest it has ever been.

Do you mean, for the majority of individuals? Or for the most possibly oppressed individuals you can find? How about the most productive individuals? Which individual are you referring to?

[Praxus]

I suspect the slaves would have differed with the view of 18th and early 19th century America being that free.

Post-bellum Jim Crow laws tend to discourage one from viewing the pre-Civil Rights US as being free.

I'd be inclined to argue that for the individual the US today is the freest it has ever been.

What individual? For most blacks who would have been slaves, absolutely, it is freer today then when there was slavery. But what about for everyone else who would not have been slaves? Would they not have been freer during the 19th century?

[punk]

Yes a society should be judged by how free the worst-off individual is *under the law*.

Anything else is intellectually dishonest.

[DavidOdden]

Yes a society should be judged by how free the worst-off individual is *under the law*.

Assuming that, why would you say that now is the freest era in the US?