Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/251

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the judgment of others on our work; and a restriction of economic freedom that makes everybody work to please others, is very similar to the restriction on social freedom, which only allows people to do as they please as long as they obey the laws of the community, and do not allow their liberty to be a nuisance to others and a restriction on theirs.

If the decision about ahat is to be produced, and whether it is well produced, is left to the producers, it seems unlikely that the goods turned out will maintain so high a standard as when they have to pass muster before the consumer before they can earn any reward. And yet such seems to be the ideal of economic freedom aimed at by some at least of the Guildsmen, for we saw that Mr. Cole maintained that the workers must be free "to choose whether they will make well or ill."

To this extent, then, it seems that economic freedom must be limited, if we are to secure efficiency in production and freedom for the consumer to choose what goods he will enjoy. And since, as has already been pointed out, we most of us produce only one, or only a fraction of only one, thing, and consume thousands of things, our freedom as consumers seems to be much more precious than our