经济自由及其代价与限度

经济自由的增长是经济发展的必要前提,而经济发展的最终目标在于拓展人们的自由。这里的自由分别指形式自由和实质自由。实质自由的有效增长依赖于人们拥有平等的形式自由,形式自由则依赖于政府对个体权利的保护。但政府有可能为了扩张自己的权利破坏形式自由的平等性,最终损害人们的实质自由。因而探求自由的价值、代价与限度的过程,也是寻找政府行为守则的过程。

Economic Freedom as well as Its Costs and Limitation

Economic development needs raising economic freedom, and it is also the final goal of economic development. There are two kinds of different freedom——formal freedom and real freedom.Efficient increase of real freedom depends on maintaining equality of formal freedom, and formal freedom needs the actions from government to protect individual rights. But governments maybe break the equality of formal freedom in order to expand their own rights, which will damage people' s real freedoms at last. When we explore the value, costs and limitation of freedom, it is to say, we are exploring how to limit the government's actions.