Pick Your Planner

By, Chris Rossini
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Obama's Twitter account recently asked the following question:

If you're like me, then it probably struck you as to how far America has drifted.

This is the question that I must ask myself? "Whose plan is better for me?"

A stream of quotes immediately began to cross my mind:

Ludwig Von Mises

“The alternative is not plan or no plan. The question is: whose planning? Should each member of society plan for himself or should the paternal government alone plan for all? The issue is…spontaneous action of each individual versus the exclusive action of the government. It is freedom versus government omnipotence.”

Murray Rothbard

“You cannot plan markets. By their very nature, you can only set people free so that they can interact, exchange, and thereby develop markets themselves.”

Adam Smith

“Every individual, it is evident, can, in his local situation, judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him.”

Ron Paul

“A central planning bureaucrat cannot be a substitute for the law of supply and demand.”

Have we slid so far down that the above quotes are now foreign to most people?

It's now acceptable for Americans to play a silly game every four years called "Pick your Planner"?

Where's the American spirit?

Obama's question smacks of barbarianism as well. He wants you to make sure that the plan is best for you. Make sure that the force and violence of the State is serving your ends. Make sure that you get a piece of whatever government grabs. Forget about how it'll affect others. Make sure your planner is right for you.

Yes, it's all a great fiction. A fiction that Frederic Bastiat captured beautifully:

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."