The Warning of Iran

While in every nation people have a long list of grievances against their own government, it is generally assumed that this is a normal experience accepted by most. The overreaches of central control and the ever-growing layers of bureaucracy seem to be significant, but always manageable. This normalization of poor governance seems to only have marginal consequences in finances or liberty. However, these overreaches are anything but marginal. The situation in Iran shows exactly where those little overreaches can lead, if not aggressively guarded against. The Iranian people have been completely abused by their government, both in violence against them, economic policy, and entering them into a war they were destined to receive countless bombings they could not protect against. This would be far more surprising if the government had not acted with the same levels of overreach in time of peace. Freedom does not perpetuate itself. It needs strong people to fight for it, and the destruction of individual freedom and well-being in Iran should be an action call towards that. 

Both before and during the war, the people of Iran have been put into a great amount of physical danger directly caused by their government. Before the war that danger came whenever they tried to protest. They were simply protesting their horrible economic conditions, and they were violently put down by their own government. Seeking to create better outcomes for themselves in a moment of desperation put them at risk. The government had no sympathy for its own people, and would do anything to avoid the appearance of public dissent. The second layer of danger came from the entry into an international war. Iran’s constant threatening of other groups made it almost inevitable that they would be entered into such a war. Because their government did not seek peace, the state and the people received constant bombings from their perpetual enemies. While Iran had no obligation to simply agree with the demands of the US in Israel, they could have disagreed in a way that did not endanger the lives of their people. The prioritization of nuclear weapons and complete lack of constructive diplomacy by Iran has caused a massive amount of damage to both their people and national stability. When a government shows that they will willingly endanger their people, that government loses the right to govern. 

Just as currency control in the US has damaged our outcomes, in Iran it led to massive inflation in the time of war and before. The people have no stable source of value with which to do business. Even as the people woke up with only 40% of the assets that they used to have, government employees received 60% pay raises to offset it. This sort of callous lack of care for the people could grow from our current situation in America if we do not watch it closely. While not as brazen as the Iranian government, our government devalues our currency while expanding the share of it that they spend. As much as people try to subordinate economics to other disciplines, the situation in Iran makes it obvious just how serious it can be when the wrong economic theory is chosen. People no longer being able to afford food and housing directly because of government action makes the case for sound money no longer something theoretically useful, but rather urgent and necessary. The US needs to get rid of this currency risk before we can say that our nation is truly stable.

We must pay attention to what has happened in Iran because every nation is only a few steps away from that. In the 1970s they were a flourishing and free country, today it would almost be hard to believe that. Little choices matter, and particularly when the stakes are so high. When we choose between a freedom-enabled solution and a freedom-reducing solution, we are not choosing between two equal options, we are choosing between a chain and a lack of one. Regardless of how effective the solution is for a specific problem, if we trade our freedom for it, it will never be worth it. The same logic justifies why we even have nations in the first place, as they are supposed to protect us from a different lack of freedom. We must stay vigilant against all government overreaches because situations like the one in Iran are not something reserved for specific countries and specific times, they are a recurring theme through history that we must always be prepared for.