ABSTRACT
The freedom in question is the right of individuals to use their mental and physical powers (their personal assets) and whatever other assets they rightfully own as they please subject to certain limitations. There are two substantial qualifications here to individual economic freedom which need to be explained: first, how to determine what constitutes rightful ownership of non-personal assets, and second, the limitations on the use of rightfully owned assets. It may be that rightful individual ownership of non-personal assets is extremely limited and/or the rights to use such assets as one pleases is extremely limited. However, the fundamental right would seem to include the right to sell one’s labour power and to buy that of others. Only the most extreme form of collectivist socialism denies these freedoms altogether on the basis of the communist slogan “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. 1 The 1945 Labour government in the UK, which was certainly a socialist one, only aimed at controlling the commanding heights of the economy and allowed small and medium scale private enterprise to operate.
