Who are the Dogmatists and Ideologues Now?
Steven Horwitz
Let's look at the record of the last three years:
TARP = Failed.
QE1 = Failed.
QE2 = Failed.
Stimulus = Failed.
Non-existent budget cuts/debt ceiling increase = Failed, at least in S&P's eyes.
Each of these has involved more government activism and each has failed. Yet each one is followed by more government and more claims of disaster if government doesn't act. And those who support such activism continue to claim that those of us who object to it and argue that freeing markets is the better route are "dogmatists," "ideologues," and "fundamentalists."
If dogmatism is the continued arrogant adherence to a set of ideas regardless of the evidence to support them or arguments against them, the real dogmatists right now are those who continue to cling stubbornly to the belief, against the piled up evidence to the contrary, that more government is the way out of this mess. Liberals and progressives (as well as a good number of conservatives) who claim to believe in reason and evidence and to oppose dogma need to take a good long look in the mirror and decide whether they want to take the advice of Einstein who defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
At what point does an Administration who loudly pledged to really bring a scientific mindset to policy making wake up and realize it is in the throes of unscientific dogma? At what point do the media, politicians, and the left-liberals stop acting like the religious fundamentalists they rightly excoriate and decide that there is no evidence for their position? And at what point do they stop the psychological projection of calling free marketeers "dogmatists?"
Unfortunately, I think the answer to all of those is "never," but it's worth pointing out the hypocrisy of it all.
Austrians and fellow travelers have had the right explanation of what got us in this mess and all of our warnings about the ways more government wouldn't solve the problem have largely been on target as well. The sad satisfaction of watching this slow-motion car crash is cold comfort as our fellow citizens continue to suffer because the intellectual clerisy engages in the worst sort of state idolatry and interventionist fundamentalism, refusing to shake off their dogma in the face of mounting evidence of its massive error.
Each passing day tests my deep reservoir of optimism.
chicagoboyz.net
Going to Have to Face It You're Addicted to Debt
|Peter Boettke|
New York Times reports this morning that the Chinese government has released an official statement that says the US government is addicted to debt. In particular, the "gigantic military expenditures" and "bloated social welfare programs" were singled out.
It is not often that I agree with the Chinese government, but in this criticism of the situation in the US I do, and have been making a similar argument concerning the spending problem, the debt-inflation cycle, and the juggling tricks that government often resorts to.
The global economy doesn't need an international plan of supervision and stabilization, instead what is required is bold action by policy makers to slash spending and let society reclaim responsibility from the state.
coordinationproblem.org |
