Why did 20th-century Americans abandon freedom in the first place?
There is no question but that the type of society in which, say, late 19th-century Americans lived was totally different from the type of society in which 20th-century Americans lived and in which 21st-century Americans continue to live.
Nineteenth-century Americans lived without such things as income taxation and the IRS, paper money; the Federal Reserve; a national-security state (i.e., the Pentagon, a massive permanent military force, a military-industrial complex, a CIA, and a NSA); FBI; drug laws and the DEA; immigration controls and ICE and the Border Patrol; public (i.e., government) schooling systems; a government-managed economy; a government-regulated economy; foreign empire; foreign interventionism; foreign wars; foreign aid; foreign military bases; embargoes; sanctions; state-sponsored assassinations; coups; torture; indefinite detention without due process and trial by jury; and much more.
Twentieth-century and 21st-century Americans, on the other hand, live in a society that has all those things.
Obviously, two opposite systems cannot both be freedom. One is freedom and the other necessarily is not, no matter how much people might convince themselves of the contrary.
So, why did 20th-century Americans abandon freedom?
I believe that one answer lies in the concept of “security.” It’s human nature to want security in life, especially in such areas as personal financial matters, health, employment, business, retirement, and family.
Of course, the degree of risk that people are willing to take depends on each person. Some people are just naturally bigger risk-takers than others. They are willing to risk most everything to achieve a particular goal. Security is not as important to them as it is to others.
But I think that for most people, security is of the utmost importance.
The problem is that life itself is insecure. Even billionaires have been known to go bankrupt. A person in perfect health today might find himself diagnosed with pancreatic cancer tomorrow. Someone who has been happily married for 20 years might suddenly hear his or her spouse announce that he or she wants a divorce. People’s children end up embarking on a course of action that parents did not want. People suddenly find themselves at 70 years of age with no savings and possibly no children to help them out.
Life is filled with insecurity. It’s just part of life’s journey from birth to death.
Then the government steps in. It preys on this phenomenon by promising people that it will bring them the security for which they yearn. If people will just render their lives to the government, the government will keep them safe and secure from the dangers and vicissitudes of life.
That’s what the adoption of the welfare state, the regulated economy, and the managed economy in the 1930s was all about. The federal government presented itself as a backstop — a “safety net” — for the American people. No longer would people have to fear a loss of employment, death by starvation, injury at work, a severe illness, or a penniless retirement. The government would be there permanently to help them out.
That then was followed by the conversion of the federal government to a national-security state. With this conversion, the federal government promised to keep Americans safe from the scary creatures of the world, including the communists, terrorists, Muslims, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, and tattooed gang members.
There were some big prices that Americans had to pay, however, in exchange for these promises of security: the loss of freedom and, interestingly, the continued presence of insecurity, not to mention the ever-growing financial cost to Americans in terms of taxation and monetary debasement.
In fact, it’s ironic that modern-day Americans have the most powerful government in history — a massive totalitarian-like welfare-warfare state with omnipotent powers to keep Americans safe and secure — while, at the same time, the American people continue to be the most frightened people in the world.
Modern-day Americans are scared of everything, especially the thought of losing their governmental “security.”
This article was originally published at the Future of Freedom Foundation and is republished here with permission.
- Why Did Americans Abandon Freedom? - February 12, 2026
- What FDR Did to Our Money - November 12, 2025
- Which Way Forward for America? - May 8, 2024