Wednesday, October 3, 2018

A Call At Harvard For a Socialist Future



 Henry N. Brooks '19 writes in the Harvard Crimson:
I’ve been seeing signs outside Canaday, Sever, and the Science Center advertising a “socialist future,” and I have to say I’m not entirely opposed — provided we’re talking about the same socialism.

By socialism, I mean government intervention on a small scale....

[I]t’s not hard to envision a different sort of big government: public banks and credit unions at the state level, municipal social safety nets, and tailored tax-and-spend policies designed for local contexts. These models of public economic reform would emphasize proximity, accountability, and direct democracy over the diffuse solidarities invoked by the DSA and generations of past socialists.
Oh my, they obviously don't teach at Harvard that central planning is a problem in any sector or at any level, federal, state or local.

What this means is that Brooks does not get the fundamental problem with central planning is that it suffocates an economy at whichever level it is practiced.

Hayek's observation of central planning as a fatal conceit does not stop at the federal level nor does it stop if it is based on "direct democracy."

I wonder if he wants the internet centrally planned at the local level.

-RW 
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5 comments:

  1. Our "betters", the sort that largely send their children to places like Harvard, have always been for central planning. It's the early 20th and late 19th century industrialist model. They have been working towards it for closing in on a 150 years. First privately and then starting in the early 20th century leveraging government because people wouldn't go along with it.

    See the HG Wells film "Things to Come". It's the rosy presentation while "1984" and "Brave New World" were the warnings.

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  2. "Oh my, they obviously don't teach at Harvard that central planning is a problem in any sector or at any level, federal, state or local."

    Well, I'm sure what they do teach is that socialism isn't a problem if you have a Harvard alumnus (other than Tom Woods) as the central planner.

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  3. Steven Pinker describes why academics tend toward socialism:
    https://youtu.be/iH_HJs88HzQ?t=184

    Listen to this whole section of the interview. Maybe a little Walter Block can push Pinker past his hesitance to let the free market accommodate for and regulate without government oversite.

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  4. "...municipal social safety nets, and tailored tax-and-spend policies designed for local contexts..."

    Oh, yeah, like the "Menu Items" given to the Detroit Councilman who gets to pick and choose which Group to BRIBE with hand-outs. Like...THAT kind of "Local Context"?

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  5. If Harvard likes socialism, why dont they give away all of their ill-gotten capitalist funds?

    If it was done as in Russia, they would be the first ones sent to the gulags (unless it was their friends instituting socialism)

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