...Wealth creation, not income distribution, is the way out, and market processes and not governmental decisions will be source of that wealth creation. Who will be the most famous and boldest economist of this generation to state that clearly to the politicians the way Milton Friedman did throughout his career? No need to work for Obama or McCain, but there is a need for someone to make the case for the market economy in this time of rising oil prices, depressed housing, and uncertain investment.
Government policy got us into this mess fueled by bad ideas of social justice and public policy, and the incentives within policy making which bias the policies proposed and adopted in a certain direction, and we have to understand that government policy will not get us out of this mess --- especially if the bad ideas on social justice and public policy persist in our culture. We are in a situation similar to the mid- to late- 1970s again, but this time we don't have a Milton Friedman producing FREE TO CHOOSE, and we don't have a political leader like Reagan who employed Friedman's rhetoric (if not his actually proposed solutions) within the political debate.
Pivotal times require pivotal people. Think of the economists in the 1970s that could articulate the case for limited government: Friedman and Hayek lead the list, but also Buchanan and Stigler, Becker and Coase, Alchian and Demsetz, Meltzer and Brunner, etc. Who would be on your list today that has achieved the same scientific status as these men, but also are articulate spokesmen for their position on limited government? If only Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Sachs and Joe Stiglitz can claim to be both scientifically respected, and capable of being public intellectuals on policy relevant subjects, then the policy making game is over before it has started isn't it?
austrianeconomists.typepad.com
"...I just finished Thomas Sowell's Economic Facts and Fallacies and found it thoroughly enjoyable. Sowell has written quite a lot on this theme and he has been consistently clear and persuasive. He and several others excel at making the case that Friedman, et al. made in the 1970s. In fact, it was probably a harder sell then than now.
So what's the problem? In this morning's WSJ, Stephen Moore interviews Phil Gramm, who reminds us that, "They didn't live up to what they promised to do. Power corrupted them. They spent lots of money and tried to buy votes. Republicans concluded that they could make voters love them by governing the way Democrats did."
All of the hard work of the thinkers that Boettke cites did nudge the center of American politics in the direction of liberty (and prosperity). But it was all lost because of the Iron Law that power does corrupt..."
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