Charles Murray on Dignity and the American Dream

Mitch Daniels sings nothing but high praise of Charles Murray, for the social scientist says what no one else will. In this Future of Liberty episode, Daniels and Murray discuss some of Murray’s boldest claims about social welfare, education, and personal liberty.  

[You can listen to the full episode here.]

The Harvard social science professor must never forget what life is like for the truckdriver. When he does, he forgets the nature of the man his work attempts to help. Murray sees this as one of the problems with welfare. Although its proponents present it as compassionate, welfare often disregards human dignity. Indeed, man does not live by bread alone, but a satisfying life requires a sense of self-respect. Such self-respect is earned and used to come through providing for your family. Even if you did not have much, you could take pride in never receiving handouts. Murray recognizes that that sense of pride has been destroyed by welfare, leaving poor men undignified and despairing. 

Individuals are also being set up for failure by the education system’s refusal to recognize that abilities vary. Instead of acknowledging the different intellectual levels among students, schools push all students toward the same standard. “Half of kids,” however, Murray comments, “are below average.” Most individuals cannot reach the heights of the intellectual middle class. Rather than dooming the majority of kids to failure by pushing them beyond their limits, schools should educate students to their own levels. Part of this is to identify the truly gifted students. The gifted class are quite important to the advancement of society and should be pushed to their limits. This restructuring also means sending fewer students to college, reserving higher education for the gifted who need it and the few who truly want it, a reservation that Murray sees as beneficial to both those who go and those who find fulfillment elsewhere. 

Murray also argues that personal responsibility is liberty’s reward. While many today shift blame around and shy away from personal responsibility, personal liberty provides the unique opportunity to make one’s own way. “Every human owns his own life,” Murray states and that is a great fact that means every individual can affect their life’s outcome. While certain things will always be out of human control, freedom allows man to act and yield fruit. Therefore, consequences are liberty’s reward not its punishment.