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being totally unrestricted right to do whatever you want not taking into account other people (Berlin described it as an essentiality for minimum of what he had called negative liberty). Nonetheless, the example of the debate on a smoking ban (the freedom from the cigarette smoke has been decided more important than the freedom to smoke in the public) is not as easy explain. When considering the concept of unrestricted individual freedom, we must look further at this division and think if both can entirely coexist in a society, without contradicting themselves. Freedom is a concept strongly influencing modern economics and politics. Some economists simply claim that if we let people trade how they want, the economy will expand at no external cost to the society. For example in 1989, when Poland was undergoing the transition from planned to market economy, Mieczyslaw Wilczek, Polish industry minister introduced new legislation (called commonly Wilczek’s Law), which stated that "Undertaking economic activity is free and permitted to everyone” 25 . Poles, tied by strict communist regulations for almost 50 years, used their positive liberty to set up numerous entrepreneurships. This led to streets and market squares filled with stalls, where people could buy food, clothes, books, electric appliances, furniture and many other things that were unavailable or incredibly expensive in the state owned shops. Massive increase in supply satisfied the soaring needs of the society and the country’s GDP grew by 7.62% only in 1989! 26 The whole society benefited from that policy: unemployed people could self-employ, buyers benefited from wide choice of products and finally unrestricted possibilities incentivised the society to allocate resources efficiently. On the other hand, having got used to unrestricted supply, buyers started demanding more and more, quickly providing excess demand, what led to 351.2% inflation 27 , over a double of what was in 1988! Moreover, no quality restrictions imposed on sellers often led to dissatisfaction of consumers, unable claim their money back in case your purchase was faulty. The government failed to provide its citizens the negative liberty from possible poverty, deceit and stress (caused by volatile prices and bad quality purchases). In this example, we should concentrate on the very last word of the topic question: all. The unrestricted freedom of trade do not serve the interests of all members of society. Only people who were clever or lucky enough to become successful entrepreneurs benefited from this legislation, whereas those less shrewd were just prone to disadvantages of “wild capitalism”. Some will argue that everyone could benefit, but this is an utter simplification. Not everyone was in the convenient position to set up their company e.g. it was not the fault of doctors that they pursued their career in treating people, while money they were earning from the state healthcare systemwere losing its value on daily basis… We can also look at a more abstract idea: the freedom of speech. In the light of the recent terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper headquarters in Paris, we should analyse this event by the concept of two liberties. The freedom of speech is one of the most important liberties in the democratic world. It was the subject of the first amendment to the United States Constitution: “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” 28 This introduction of positive liberty quickly became something everyone takes for granted. This law enables the flow of ideas 25 Online source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2014/05/polish-business. Accessed : 12/06/2015 26 Online source: http://www.indexmundi.com/poland/gdp_per_capita_(ppp).html. Accessed : 17/06/2015 27 Online source: http://stat.gov.pl/obszary-tematyczne/ceny-handel/wskazniki-cen/wskazniki-cen-towarow-i- uslug-konsumpcyjnych-pot-inflacja-/roczne-wskazniki-cen-towarow-i-uslug-konsumpcyjnych-w-latach-1950- 2014/. Accessed : 16/06/2015 28 Online source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment. Accessed : 17/06/2015
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