"Having to get up and read in class when I couldn’t make sense of the words felt like a fate worse than death.” That’s how the late Ozzy Osbourne described life at school while growing up in Birmingham.
To read about what he endured is to be sickened, and to want to wring the necks of those prone to describing the halcyon, care-free days of childhood. Sorry, but childhood is frequently brutal precisely because whether private or public, education is largely one size fits all. Imagine having to do every day what has little or nothing to do with the skills and intelligence unique to you.
All of which speaks loudly to the genius of open markets for goods and services, a.k.a. free trade. When people are lucky enough to literally divide up work with the world thanks to openness to what the world produces, it’s as though all of the world’s genius is taking place next door, or in the town or city we live in.
It’s a reminder that when the world gets up and goes to work each day, those lucky enough to live in an open and economically free country get a raise each day. Osbourne would likely have appreciated the previous truth. Similarly describing his childhood, he recalled that “I was the kid on the street who, when the ice cream van came 'round, my parents couldn’t afford it every time. If you’re the kid without ice cream, it hurts, you know.” No doubt. Which is why it’s similarly difficult to not want to wring the necks of those who desire taxes and other barriers to global plenty: as Osbourne’s recollections attest, the victims of these obnoxious takings of freedom are invariably the poorest. And if you think open markets hurt the poor or put them out of your work, go back to school. Or better yet, don't go back to school.
Yet there’s more. Think once again about Osbourne in school. The agony he felt there truly speaks to the greatest genius of free trade, globalized production, robots and AI, and surely more. That’s because the more hands and machines at work in production and thought, the much greater the odds of people getting to do the work most associated with their unique interests and skills.
In other words, while pretty much everyone at school must read certain books and take frequently indecipherable subjects (think Algebra, Geometry and Calculus), in a free economy people are thankfully free to avoid the kinds of work that shrinks them. Yes, free trade is the school equivalent of never having to take Calculus, or for that matter, always getting to take Calculus if that’s what elevates your genius.
Which brings us to inequality. In thinking about it, does anyone envy Osbourne’s daily misery at school? The question answers itself. Extrapolate Osbourne's miseries to work. Do any of us want to do daily what we’re awful at such that we’re embarrassed or lazy about work, or do we want to do what we do best each day, and that showcases what’s brilliant about us? This question similarly answers itself.
Inequality is a beautiful sign of freedom and progress born most broadly of freedom to produce and exchange with anyone, regardless of their location. And it’s when we can do this that our differences (including dyslexia) are erased precisely because we’re all free to do what we do best, not what we have to do, as is sadly the case with school, public or private.
