Many Pathways to Policy Failure

Jeffrey A. Tucker – January 11, 2021 

 

 

 

Economics must not be relegated to classrooms and statistical offices and must not be left to esoteric circles,” wrote Ludwig von Mises. “It is the philosophy of human life and action and concerns everybody and everything. It is the pith of civilization and of man’s human existence.”

He wrote that in 1949, a time when the world was coming out of the darkest days of the 20th century and seeking a new way. The way forward involved taking economics seriously. 

It seems incredible to observe that those dark days are back: protectionism, shutdowns, state management of life, and a renewed push for socialism, the most anti-economic ideology ever conceived. 

The country and the entire world is desperately in need of a serious economic education. I don’t mean economics in the form of statistical regressions and confusing models that you find in the top journals. I’m speaking of core principles and how they impact the policies pursued by governments. Such an education is vitally necessary given our times. 

Something has gone seriously wrong in the 21st century to the point that it seems like whole societies have forgotten everything we’ve learned about economics in the 20th century. It’s remarkable: we became wealthier than any society in world history and yet too many have no idea why. And for that reason, in 2020, many countries decided to scrap economics altogether.

Those lessons include the failure of socialism, the unworkability of central planning, the impossibility of managing economies through top-down controls, the terrible costs of protectionism, and the reality that every intervention in the market order by government yields unintended and unanticipated consequences that most often negate the point of the intervention. Even after so much evidence on the effectiveness of free markets – the freer they are, the more they serve individuals and the whole of society – people are as confused as ever. ...........To Read More....