Central Planning and Neomericantilism

Central Planning and Neomericantilism

Central Planning and Neomercantilism The William Volker Fund Series in the Humane Studies EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF ECONOMICS by Ludwig von Mises THE ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW by Israel M. Kirzner ESSAYS IN EUROPEAN ECONOMIC THOUGHT Edited by Louise Sommer SCIENTISM AND VALUES Edited by Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins A SOCIALIST EMPIRE: THE INCAS OF PERU by Louis Baudin RELATIVISM AND THE STUDY OF MAN Edited by Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins FREEDOM AND THE LAW by Bruno Leoni MAN, ECONOMY, AND STATE-2 vols. by Murray N. Rothbard THE ULTIMATE FOUNDATION OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE by Ludwig von Mises PSYCHIATRY AND RESPONSIBILITY Edited by Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins THE FREE AND PROSPEROUS COMMONWEALTH by Ludwig von Mises SCIENCE AND HISTORY: A CRITIQUE OF POSITIVIST EPISTEMOLOGY by Heinrich Rickert THE NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR A FREE SOCIETY Edited by Felix Morley ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS: A BRIEF SURVEY OF PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES by Faustino Ballve THE NEW ARGUMENT ·IN ECONOMICS Edited by Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins ORGANIZATION OF DEBT INTO CURRENCY AND OTHER PAPERS by Charles Holt Carroll ECONOMIC HARMONIES by Frederic Bastiat ECONOMIC SOPHISMS by Frederic Bastiat SELECTED ESSAYS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY by Frederic Bastiat CENTRAL PLANNING AND NEOMERCANTILISM Edited by Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins Central Planning and Neomercantilism Edited by HELMUT SCHOECK and JAMES W. WIGGINS Papers by GARRETT HARDIN HELMUT SCHOECK THOMAS F. JOHNSON ARTHUR A. SHENFIELD GERHARD O. W. MUELLER WILLIAM S. STOKES WILLIAM H. PETERSON D. ELTON TRUEBLOOD MURRAY N. ROTHBARD ERNEST VAN DEN HAAG JAMES W. WIGGINS D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC. PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY TORONTO LONDON NEW YORK D. VAN NOSTR.AND COMPANY, INC. 120 Alexander St., Princeton, New Jersey (Principal office) 24 West 40 Street, New York 18, New York D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY (Canada) LTD. 358, Kensington High Street, London, W.14, England D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, LTD. 25 Hollinger ltoad, Toronto 16, Canada Copyright, © 1964 by WILLIAM VOLKER FUND· Published simultaneously in Canada by D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY (Canada), LTD. No reproduction in any form of this book~ in whole or in part (except for brief quotation in critical articles or reviews), may be made without written authorization from the publishers. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Contributors GARRETT HARDIN, Professor of Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of Biology: Its Principles and Implications (1961). In addition to numerous articles in professional journals, he has also written an exposition of evolution for the lay reader, Nature and Man's Fate (1959). THOMAS F. JOHNSON is Director of Research, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Previously, he served as assistant commissioner of the Federal Housing Admin­ istration in charge of research and legislation. Dr. Johnson has served on the faculties of the University of Virginia and George Washington University. He has written Small Business) Its Prospects and Its Problems; and The Price of Price Controls. He is one of the authors of Renewing America's Cities. GERHARD O. W. MUELLER, Professor of Law, New York University School of Law, is the director of the Comparative Crim­ inal Law Project. His published works include History of American C'riminal Law Scholarship (1963); Legal Regulation of Sexual Conduct (1961); and Essays in Crim.­ inal Science. (1961). He holds editorial posts with the Journal of Offender Therap'y; Journal of Criminal Law) C'riminology and Police Science; and Quaderni di Crim­ inologia Clinica. WILLIAM H. PETERSON) Professor of Economics, New York Uni­ versity,Graduate School of Business Administration. He 4as been a weekly contributor and business book editor v vi Contribulors of The Wall Street Journal from 1956 to the present. Among his works are The Great Farm Prob,lem (1959) and The Question oj Government.al Oil Import Restrictions (1959). MURRAY N. ROTHBARD, Ph.D., consulting economist, New York City. His published works include Man} Economy} arnd State) two volumes (1962); The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies (1962); "The Case for a I00 Per Cent Gold Dollar," in Leland B. Yeager, ed., In Search of a. Monetary Constitution (1962); and America's Great Depression (1963). HELMUT SCHOECK, Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory University. Dr. Schoeck came to America following World War II. During 1953-1954 he was a Visiting Research Fellow in Sociology at Yale. In addition to numerous essays and research papers in professional journals, Dr. Schoeck has written, translated, or contributed to some sixteen books, including Financing Medical Care (1962); Was heisst politisch unmoeglich? (1959); U.S.A.: Motive und Strukturen (1958); and Nietzsches Philosophie des Mensch­ lich-A Uzum.enschlichen (1948). ARTHUR A. SHENFIELD, Economic Director of the Federation of British Industries since 1955. He has served as assistant editor of the London and Cambridge Economic Service, lecturer in economics at the University of Birmingham, economic adviser to the government of Trinidad, chairman of commissions of enquiry, and chairman of the Finance Committee of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, and was in active practice at the English bar. He has lectured on British economic affairs in various countries and is the author of numerous essays and articles on economic questions, and, in particular, reports on eco- C'ont'ributors vii nomic problems in the British Caribbean. Mr. Shenfield was Ford Foundation Visiting Professor in the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business for 1963. WILLIAM S. STOKES, Senior Professor of Comparative Political Institutions at Claremont Men's College and the Claremont Graduate School. He was chairman of the Latin American Affairs Committee of the American Political Science As­ sociation and has conducted research in all the Latin Amer­ ican countries, leading to over two hundred publications in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Before accepting an en­ dowed chair at Claremont Men's College, he was Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Stokes has lectured at many Latin American institutions of higher learning. He was a civilian member of the faculty of the National War College (1962-63) and served on the Executive Council of the Inter-American Defense 'College. His books are: Honduras: An Areia Study in Government (1950) and Latin A merican Politics (1959). DAVID ELTON TRUEBLOOD, Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College. He has written and published twenty-one books. Selected titles include Philosophy of Religion; The Pre­ dicament of Modern Man; The Recovery of Family Life; and The Life We Prize. In 1954-55, Dr. Trueblood served as Chief, Religious Information, United States In­ formation Agency. ERNEST VAN DEN HAAG is Adj. Professor of Social Philosophy at New York University and a lecturer at the New School for Social Research. Among his special interests are the economic aspects of social behavior and education. He is a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society and the American Sociological Association. In addition to many articles, his books include Education as an Industry} The Fabric of Society (with Ralph Ross), and Passion and Social' Con­ straint (1963). viii C'ontributors JAMES W. WIGGINS, Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of Converse College; formerly chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Emory University, where he developed the doctoral program in sociology. Dr. Wig­ gins served as co-editor of Foreign Aid Re-examined and has had articles published in many journals and symposia. He has served as consultant to various national and regional organizations. Preface During a conference in 1961, examining the then. so fashion­ able confrontation of the public and the private sectors of the economy, several participants recognized in the advocacy of an enlarged public sector a neomercantilist ideology and a renewed wish for centralized planning. (By 1964, proposals for "massive Federal planning," even-literally-for a "neomercantilism," have come forth in numerous articles, books, pamphlets, position papers, and national conferences.) It seemed, therefore, of interest to continue these critical explorations of the philosophy, limits, and record of central planning. Five of the participants in the 1961 symposium joined six ad­ ditional members for a week-long conference in September of 1962. 'The papers discussed at that meeting resulted, after re­ visions, in the present volume. Even though the final versions of most of the essays reflect positive responses to the suggestions and criticisms each author received from the others, it should be pointed out that, as always in such enterprises, several differences of interpretation and em­ phasis have remained. Each author is alone responsible' for his views and facts. It would be unfair to look for a group consensus on the majority of the questions analyzed in this book. Nevertheless, the invitations to this symposium had been ex­ tended to men whose published work had shown an open mind for the potential, the advantages, and the inherent worth of the un­ planned society and economy. The "debating team approach" rarely yields. a readable book. Of course, today as ever we can point to gaps and disturbances in our social, cultural, and economic environment which we all might wish were not there. There will never be a society so per­ fect, and with all its members on the same high level of well-being at the same time, that nothing could be imagined to be improv- ix X Prefa,ce able. The question is only whether some sort of central planning, and centralized allocation of resources to pay for the programs, will do the trick. The contributors to this volume are probably as distressed by the sight of slums, unemployment, and wasted resources as the planners. But they see little in the facts to feed a hope that these blemishes in a society will go away after vigorous centralized planning. 'They think they can offer solid reasons and numerous series of facts to support the conclusion that such planning, no matter how well intentioned, usually will make the problems only more intractable.

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