I have never had a lot of
patience. I suppose this is one of my character flaws.
I do not suffer fools lightly. I
suppose this is another one of my character flaws.
I use strong rhetoric to deal
with economic imbeciles. I do not regard this as one of my character flaws. I
regard it as one of my strengths.
ECONOMIC IMBECILES
All around us are economic imbeciles. We find them in the
major university economics departments. We find them on the financial media
sites. We certainly find them in Congress. Above all, we find them on the
Federal Open Market Committee. These people believe that a government
committee, filled with tenured bureaucrats, is better equipped to solve
economic problems than the competitive free market is, where people have their
own money on the line.
They really are economic imbeciles. They may have IQ's that
got them through college or graduate school. But, in their understanding of
cause and effect, they are imbeciles. They do not understand that they are
imbeciles. They preach to the choirs that surround them…….
BAD ETHICS AND PAINFUL
OUTCOMES
If there were no built-in
self-destruct arrangements in the very character, meaning moral character, of
the institutions of organized theft, then I don't think we could win the
battle. If it were simply a matter of good arguments driving out bad arguments,
I don't think we could win this thing. Self-interest really is dominant. That is
what economic analysis teaches, and I believe this principle.
But self-interest on behalf of
organized theft is misplaced. Built into the creation, and built into the free
market economy, are a series of poison pills. When individuals use violence or
the threat of violence to interfere with market processes, they don't look at
the long-term consequences of these interferences. Somewhere down the road,
there is going to be hell to pay. There is going to be a great default. There
is going to be something that disrupts the lives of those voters, as well as
their victims, who vote in favor of the expansion of governments into the lives
of citizens.
The defenders of organized theft
deny that there are these built-in negative sanctions against any society that
follows these practices, but, as I've said, the defenders are economic
imbeciles……..
A
BATTLE OF SLOGANS
The
Keynesians have no equivalent of this slogan: "There is no such thing as a
free lunch." This is a powerful slogan. So is this one: "You can't
get something for nothing." So is this one: "If it sounds too good to
be true, it probably is." So is this one: "Honesty is the best
policy." But, above all others, we have this one: "Thou shalt not
steal."
The
Keynesians have this slogan: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to
help you." The entire case for Keynesianism is based on this slogan.
This is
why it pays to defend freedom. Even when the overwhelming majority of voters do
not want to hear the arguments, we should keep making them. We should keep
pointing out that there will be horrendous negative repercussions for
violations of the principle of voluntary exchange. We don't get a hearing,
except during crises. I have good news. There will be plenty of crises in which
we will get a hearing.
Full text at: http://www.garynorth.com/public/14693.cfm
