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Cleaning up After the Elephants

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Cleaning up After the Elephants Perspective Cleaning Up After Published by the Elephants The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 detect a pattern in the challenges hurled at liberals Phone: (914) 591-7230; E-mail: [email protected] www.fee.org on nearly every issue. The opponent of liberalism describes a problem, invariably with roots in a gov- President Richard M. Ebeling I ernment infringement of freedom. In response, he pre- Editor Sheldon Richman Managing Editor Beth A. Hoffman scribes more government interference with freedom, at Book Review Editor George C. Leef which point the liberal interjects that the best and only just solution is the repeal of the culpable state power.The Columnists statist replies that this will not do because the liberal’s Charles Baird Robert Higgs Donald J. Boudreaux Lawrence W.Reed proposal won’t solve every related problem and may even Stephen Davies Russell Roberts reveal hitherto overlooked problems. Undo still more Richard M. Ebeling Thomas Szasz government action, the liberal replies. But this brings the Burton W.Folsom, Jr. Walter E.Williams same criticism. Contributing Editors Here’s what’s going on. The exercise of state power Norman Barry Dwight R. Lee for many years has created gross distortions in incentives, Peter J. Boettke Wendy McElroy consumer preferences, and investment, leading to the James Bovard Tibor Machan Thomas J. DiLorenzo Andrew P.Morriss problems under discussion. In other words, the politicians Joseph S. Fulda James L. Payne and bureaucrats have made a royal mess.Then liberals are Bettina Bien Greaves William H. Peterson faulted for not being able to clean it up tidily with the John Hospers Jane S. Shaw wave of a hand.That they can’t make everything right at Raymond J. Keating Richard H.Timberlake Daniel B. Klein Lawrence H.White once is held against liberalism. An example of this is medical insurance. Government Foundation for Economic Education has regulated and heavily financed every aspect of med- Board of Trustees, 2006–2007 icine and insurance for years. As a result, demand and Dan Grossman, Chairman hence prices have gone up past the point they would Sally von Behren Paige K. Moore have gone in a free market, pricing some people out of Lloyd Buchanan Wayne Olson the fettered market. When a liberal advocates removing Edward M. Kopko Tom G. Palmer Walter LeCroy Roger Ream the tangled web of regulations, taxes, and subsidies, and Frayda Levin Donald Smith letting the free and competitive market operate, the sta- Kris A. Mauren Guillermo M.Yeatts tist objects that this idea won’t immediately enable everyone to have “affordable” health insurance and med- The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is a non-political, non-profit educational champion of indi- ical care.The same argument is made about Social Secu- vidual liberty, private property, the free market, and rity.Translation:“My side bollixed things up terribly, but constitutionally limited government. since your side can’t resolve everything smoothly and The Freeman is published monthly, except for com- painlessly by tomorrow, my side should continue calling bined January-February and July-August issues.To receive a sam- ple copy,or to have The Freeman come regularly to your door, call the shots.” 800-960-4333, or e-mail [email protected]. This, I submit, falls short in the logic department. If The Freeman is available on microfilm from University Microfilm the present statist course is headed toward continued and International, 300 North Zeeb Road,Ann Arbor, MI 48106. increasing disaster, then we need a new course.That the Copyright © 2006 Foundation for Economic Education. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without permission, of freedom approach can’t make everything new overnight, editorial or graphic content is prohibited. or even in the next few years, is hardly an argument against it. The fact is, what we’re doing now is causing THE FREEMAN: Ideas on Liberty 4 PERSPECTIVE: Cleaning Up After the Elephants misery, insecurity, and advancing serfdom.To add insult * * * to injury, that very misery and insecurity are made to The United States never had wholesale government justify more measures that will only add to the misery ownership of the means of production, but that doesn’t and insecurity, not to mention the serfdom. One of two mean there’s no central economic planning. Just look at things will happen: either we’ll end up with complete what goes on in the name of development at the munic- central planning (the abolition of freedom) in which ipal and regional levels. Steven Greenhut reports. everything not prohibited is required, or we’ll settle into Even in a mixed economy business success is not a wretched, stagnant social equilibrium short of totali- guaranteed. John Semmens looks at the fluidity of the tarianism and muddle along indefinitely. Desiderata Fortune 500. these are not. A popular fallacy today equates democracy with lib- The only hopeful alternative is freedom, the progres- erty.But as James Bovard shows, the two couldn’t be fur- sive removal of the many levels of state interference with ther apart. our peaceful productive activities. The state’s coercion There’s danger in picking out one part of society as has created untold dislocations, including some as yet the most important, as Victor Jacobson explains in this undetected.Thus as power is peeled away, problems will month’s FEE Timely Classic. be revealed that were not apparent before. It is not lib- Can economists give public-policy advice without eralization that will have created those problems. On the compromising economics as a value-free discipline? contrary, persistent liberalization will solve them. Israel Kirzner begins an exploration of this question in If you want an idea of what to expect, read Henry the first of a three-part series. Hazlitt’s novel, Time Will Run Back. In Hazlitt’s story, a President Bush claims the authority to eavesdrop, pragmatic man acquires the top job in a worldwide without warrants, on telephone calls between suspected totalitarian state. Seeing that people are inconvenienced terrorists in foreign countries and U.S. residents. Is that by the rationing system, he proposes what looks like a claim valid? Robert Levy takes up this critical matter. minor adjustment. He had no intention of making any In the columns department, here’s what we find: big changes, but, in a reverse of Mises’s “critique of Richard Ebeling explains why political trends are mis- interventionism,” the little change “creates” new prob- leading. Lawrence Reed takes a swing at governments lems that the commissar sees can only be solved by fur- that run golf courses.Thomas Szasz explains social con- ther liberal tweaking. The logical destination is laissez trol through psychiatric diagnosis as an imposition and faire. assumption of roles. Burton Folsom shows the connec- That is the route we hope to begin traveling as liber- tion between war and debt. Walter Williams concludes al ideas become more prominent in our culture. While his Economics for the Citizen series. And David Hen- we should advocate abolition of all intervention, aboli- derson, reading the claim that no one is getting wealth- tion all at once is unlikely to happen. (Although we ier but the already-wealthy, responds,“It Just Ain’t So!” can hope, can’t we?) But while gradual liberalization is The book reviewers render verdicts on works about likely, it doesn’t follow that we should advocate gradual- the bombing of civilians, the Progressives’ remake of the ism. As the great slavery abolitionist William Lloyd Constitution, an environmentalist’s second thoughts, and Garrison understood,“Gradualism in theory is perpetu- the words of Ludwig von Mises. ity in practice.” —Sheldon Richman [email protected] 5 JULY/AUGUST 2006.
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