Posted on 03/07/2019 12:13:36 PM PST by gattaca
Thomas Sowell now fears U.S. may not resist 'siren song' Revered economics columnist Thomas Sowell’s warning that Americans may not resist the “siren song” of socialism recalls the late legendary economist Milton Friedman’s warning of the inevitable “drift” toward collectivism that any society with a free enterprise system must constantly battle.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Drift? Hell, they are racing each other!......................
Not just Friedman, but Joseph Schumpeter long before him.
Unfortunately Milton Friedman’s advocacy of free trade has resulted in the destruction of many US industries and decades of labor dislocations that has resulted in many blaming capitalism instead of the government trade policies that fostered the offshoring.
So Friedman helped cause the very drift towards socialism that he warned about.
and Bob Grant ... "slipping and sliding toward third worldism" ...
Hmmm.. I didn’t know Friedman was that powerful. I thought it was the union and the dems pushing for 100 dollars an hour.
No, it’s the trade policies. The unions may have exacerbated some of it but dropping the tariffs is what really did us in. So called free trade will reduce us to Chinese level wages if left unchecked.
Every union slavery state is in trouble, until taxpayers bail them out. I did not know that about friedman though.. I guess there is always something about everyone to disagree with. His body of work is usually agreeable to me.
Capitalism grinds along, creating huge amounts of wealth.
But along the way it creates hard feelings among those who feel they’ve been mistreated in the process or did not get their “fair share”.
Successful capitalism always breeds the conditions for a socialist counterpush.
As Rush said, after 1994 and Newt, we stopped teaching.Capitalism vs. Socialism (Prager U. 5-minute video)
Thomas Paine nailed it in Common Sense:
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins.To the rebuttal that we need Social Security, Adam Smith preemptively replied 1776:Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness;Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one . . .the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices.
The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions.
The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest . . . — Thomas Paine,The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it. - The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter IIHe was right. The “Social Security Trust Fund” consists of IOUs the government wrote to itself.Consequently, when Social Security’s cash flow is negative the money has to come from the Treasury to redeem the bonds. Whereas without the SSTF “safe government bonds,” the Treasury would have to pay the bill directly rather than through an intermediary.
See the difference? Neither do I.
Bkmk
Friedman and Sowell are both brilliant economists.
But one did not need to be a brilliant economist to see this coming down the pike long ago - just like infanticide.
Each is the logical progression of a faulty philosophy.
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