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Yet, it is also true that all varieties of socialism fail to achieve their goals for the same reason: all varieties attempt, to one degree or another, to substitute the decisions of government planners for those of private citizens interacting in competitive markets.
And in doing so, all varieties of socialism suffer from the insurmountable knowledge problem, as beautifully demonstrated by the late economist Don Lavoie in his book 1985 book, National Economic Planning: What is Left?
George Will wisely counsels the United States Supreme Court to steer clear of gerrymandering cases [3].
Here’s Jeffrey Tucker on the origin of that destructive slogan “the personal is political [4].”
California’s “Progressive” elites contribute to global warming! [5]
Claude Barfield is correct when he observes that [6]:
In the late 19th century, Tom Reed, an acerbic Republican Speaker of House, once said [7] of two House members, “They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum total of human knowledge.” There is something of the same result when President Trump speaks about trade policy.
Fortunately, there is a bit of good news on the trade front – as reported by Scott Sumner [8]. A slice:
There is no evidence that Huawei poses a security threat to the US. But there is evidence that the US is using this issue as a way of pressuring China to give in to our demands on trade, unrelated to national security. The world is better off when US bullying fails to achieve its objective.
“Government, supposedly the advancer of our well-being, routinely relies on logical errors, misrepresentations, and even basic arithmetic mistakes to justify its policies and proposals. Such manipulation advances the interests of those in government and their favorites, not Americans’ general welfare.” – so writes Gary Galles [9].
I thank my colleague Pete Boettke for featuring my Fraser Institute videos on Hayek [10].