Title: Freedom or Power? - Foundation for Economic Education
Headings: Freedom or Power?
Freedom or Power?
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Exploitation
Rent Controls
Freedom to Associate
Freedom of Speech
The Range of Options
Freedom and Government Intervention
Power and Government Intervention
Opportunities Overlooked
No Precise Measure of the Costs of Intervention
Brian Summers

Content: In these terms, the only “excessive” rent is a rent that no tenant will freely pay- one that exceeds the supply and demand conditions set by the market. Minimum wages and rent con-trois are just two forms of price control. All such controls reduce freedom by abrogating prices peacefully agreed upon in the market. And all create conditions so bad that further moves from freedom are quickly proposed. All this, of course, in the name of freedom! In 1979, for instance, the Department of Energy held pump prices of gasoline below market- clearing levels. With demand exceeding supply, shortages and long lines soon developed. To eliminate these lines, it was proposed that rationing be imposed so that every driver would be “free” to buy a fixed quantity of gas at controlled prices. But this isn’t freedom. It is the power to (hopefully) obtain a given amount of gas by preventing other drivers from buying more than the legal limit.