The most fundamental moral principle—the Golden Rule—is simple: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Every major religious tradition teaches it, and people of secular conscience embrace it as well. Yet in politics and economics, we often neglect this principle. We accept governments that meddle in the private lives of peaceful people, even when no one is harmed, and in doing so, we support policies that violate the Golden Rule.
Attempts to regulate private behavior not only infringe on individual rights; they also distract from the proper purpose of government. Government’s legitimate role is to safeguard public rights—protecting people from harms imposed by others without consent. If no one else is harmed, no public duty arises, and government has no cause to intervene.
But when pollution is released into the air or water, or when natural wealth is taken from common resources without compensation, harm is imposed. Polluting industries, in pursuit of profit, force all others to refrain from emitting similar material to a proportional degree—assuming we as a society intend to respect limits to overall pollution. Without limits, the rights of the public would be disregarded in practice, existing only as a philosophical construct.
In such cases, requiring polluters to pay a fee is not an arbitrary use of force but an act of justice. It is the people’s way of enforcing their collective right to define limits. If average public opinion holds that more pollution would be unacceptable, then the appropriate response is to adjust fees until emissions fall within that acceptable range. This is the Golden Rule applied to public life: no individual or corporation should impose upon others what they would not want imposed upon themselves.
When such fees are collected, fairness requires that the proceeds not be absorbed into bureaucratic budgets, but rather shared equally among all people. Natural wealth—clean air, stable climate, fertile soil, rich fisheries, and forests—is the inheritance of everyone. If it is diminished, compensation should flow equally to all, not to the few who hold political power. In this way, the fees serve both justice and poverty alleviation. Every person receives a dividend from our shared inheritance, ensuring that the benefits of nature’s wealth are broadly distributed.
This framework points to a new political possibility: a marriage of libertarian and green traditions. Libertarian principles insist that no government should initiate force or coercion against peaceful citizens. Green principles insist that natural systems be respected, and that human impacts remain within limits that sustain life and fairness across generations. Together, these principles affirm both freedom and responsibility.
A libertarian-green path would respect private property, civil liberty, and personal choice, while also establishing public property rights in the commons. Polluters and extractors would be required to pay the public for the damage or depletion they cause. Dividends from those payments would end poverty by guaranteeing everyone a fair share of natural wealth. Meanwhile, honest prices—prices that reflect real environmental costs—would align profit with sustainability, ensuring that innovation and enterprise serve long-term flourishing.
Such a system offers maximum freedom within necessary limits. People remain free to pursue their interests and livelihoods, but within rules that prevent them from violating the Golden Rule at the expense of others.
If we wish to end poverty, promote sustainability, and bring human impacts on the environment into line with what most people would deem acceptable, then we must return to first principles. Government should not coerce peaceful individuals. It should instead protect our shared rights, ensure that natural wealth is treated fairly, and embody the moral precepts that sustain society. To respect truth, prices must reflect real costs. To respect fairness, proceeds from the commons must be shared equally. And to respect freedom, limits must be set by the people themselves, through democratic processes that give voice to the collective conscience.
This is not utopian. It is simply the Golden Rule, practiced consistently in our economic and political life.
Biological Model for Politics and Economics
