Understanding Responsibility in a Free Market
If we want to Make America Great Again, we should seek to Make America Response-Able Again.
The Merriam-Webster definition of responsibility associates the word with accountability. Being responsible is “liable to being called to account.” A child may be held responsible for keeping his room clean. A student is usually held responsible for doing her homework. A particular cornerback may be responsible for covering a particular wide receiver. A cashier by definition is responsible for checking out customers. Citizens earning income are responsible for filing their federal income tax return on time. You are expected to carry out your responsibilities. If you do not, some higher authority— your parent, your teacher, your coach, your employer, your government — may hold you accountable.
This post is motivated by the fact that I was exposed recently to a different meaning of the word responsible. Someone pointed out to me that the word responsible can be thought of a combination of two words: Response and able. This word construction suggests you are responsible if you are “able to respond, and this word meaning is not necessarily connected to accountability.
Expectations can be unrealistic, so holding someone accountable can be unfair. Is it fair for a parent to hold their child accountable for keeping a bedroom clean? Perhaps, but perhaps not. The same answer applies to the following questions. Is it fair for a teacher to hold a student accountable for solving a differential equation? Is it fair for a coach to hold a player accountable for losing a game? Is it fair for a manager to hold a worker accountable for the business losing money? Is it fair for government to hold a citizen accountable for filing a tax return on time? Whether it is fair to hold someone accountable, expect them to be responsible, depends upon whether he or she is “response-able. ”Repsonse-able people should be held accountable, but it is unfair to expect someone to perform when they are not “response-able.”
People become more response-able, more capable, with training. Thus, we can say the job of parents is to make their children response-able. The job of teachers is to make their students response-able. The job of coaches, employers, and government is to make their players, employees, and citizens response-able. This job performance understanding is useful. Anyone doing one or more of these jobs can evaluate their own performance by measuring the degree to which those being developed are becoming more “response-able.”
The Role of Accountability in Individual Liberty
It’s common for young children to selfishly act in their own interest and not recognize that “others are in the room.” Is a child behaving irresponsibly? Perhaps. If the child is old enough to reasonably think he or she should have learned to think of others, then yes. Alternatively, it is unfair to expect very young children to always think of others. They need to be trained. The job of the parent is to make the child response-able, capable of responding effectively in the presence of others in different situations. How many children grow up to be dysfunctional and irresponsible adults because their parents never taught them how to interact effectively with others? Many. Indeed, many of our societal problems can be traced to parents failing at their job of making their children “response-able.”
How many students do not fulfill their potential because our education system has not made them response-able? Again, many.
Education is relatively unique in that it is a product co-produced by the consumer who benefits from it. We have an opportunity to improve our education system by recognizing teachers do not produce education independent of the student. Rather, student and teacher co-produce the education that the student receives.
The relative response-abilities of teacher and student change as the student gets older. Pre-kindergarten, parents are normally the teachers, and children do not much contribute to their own learning. Good parents expose their young children to different stimuli, and the child learns without much self-effort. As the child develops, parents and other teachers can accelerate the child’s learning by building upon what the child already knows, by strategically arranging a curriculum. The child is not much response-able in the process of producing education at this early stage; the parents and early childhood teachers are.
However, as the child ages, the child increasingly becomes a vital participant in the learning process. As a child becomes more response-able, he or she can choose to read, do homework, and listen to the teaching, but choosing not to do these things also becomes possible. “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” If a child becomes an unwilling participant in his own learning, little learning occurs no matter how much money is spent and no matter how much effort a quality teacher puts forth. In the latter stages of the education process, in high school and in college, the teacher is not nearly as response-able as the student. Consequently, to maintain or enhance the learning produced, students should be held increasingly accountable for their own education as they age.
Fostering Responsible Citizens for Economic Growth
Winning coaches win because “practice makes perfect.” Better said, “Perfect practice makes perfect,” because good practices make players response-able. With good coaching, players can become so response-able that difficult tasks like hitting a ball or shooting a basket can become automatic. Beyond developing specific sport skills, people who participate in sports become more able to respond effectively when behind, more able to face fear, more capable of bouncing back from a defeat, and more. It is not accidental that young people who participate in sports go on to become successful in other contexts. Sports teach response-ability. When you can respond, you are capable. When you are capable, you are empowered. When you are empowered, you accomplish.
Employers want response-able employees. Little contributes more to business success than a response-able employee, and little can contribute more to business failure than an irresponsible employee. How does an employer obtain a response-able employee? One way is to compete with other employers and pay a high wage for an employee who is already response-able. However, businesses are often so specialized that it is difficult to hire an employee who is able to respond to all the specific tasks that are required. Thus, regardless of the product produced, managers of businesses also tend to be in the business of making workers response-able. Successful businesses either hire or develop response-able workers.
Limited Government and the Benefits of a Responsible Society
For a free society to endure, it must produce response-able citizens. Free people can abuse their freedom and intentionally injure others. A response-able free citizen is one who can pursue happiness as they individually define it, but without injuring others. If people use their freedom to lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want, then those who are injured or who fear injury will naturally pressure government to restrict freedoms to reduce the harm.
Free market capitalism works largely because it provides people with the ability to satisfy most wants without injuring others. Rather, than stealing from another to get what is desired, the most common approach is to trade away labor time for money and then trade money for the desired product. Because trade does not occur unless it is mutually beneficial, all who trade to get what they want are enriched rather than injured. Workers are motivated to augment their skills because more response-able workers get paid more. Firms are motivated to improve their products or provide existing products at lower prices because more response-able firms will attract more customers and make more money. Freedom can largely reign because people can get what they want without lying, cheating, or stealing. Cumbersome government is not necessary to prevent injury because people are not being injured as all pursue what they want.
The extent to which a society produces response-able citizens is largely dependent upon the extent to which parents, teachers, coaches, and employers do the jobs. Good parents, teachers, and coaches deliver response-able young adults to society. Response-able young adults are no longer dependent upon their parents for support, nor dependent upon society more broadly. They don’t lie, cheat, nor steal to get what they want. They work. Employers further develop the response-ability of young adults. Response-able adults run businesses that produce products that satisfy wants; they give to and lead non-profits that help people in other ways the private sector does not; and they provide good governance by voting in response-able office holders or running themselves.
Making America response-able is key to making America great.
