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Bonus Quotation of the Day…

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… is from George Will’s March 6th, 2020, column, titled “Nikki Haley picks a worthy fight with anti-capitalist Republicans [2]” (links original):

She [Nikki Haley] did not need to specify Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s aspiration for “common-good capitalism [3],” or Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s even vaguer capitalism that does not encourage “Pelagianism [4]” and the “Promethean self [5].” Really. Such conservatives inevitably advocate, in effect, government “industrial policy,” socialism’s essential ingredient.

DBx: True dat.

Let’s be clear: industrial policy truly is a variety of socialism. And socialism does not become either unworkable or tyrannical only when it is pursued in its most extreme form.

Yes: socialism does, of course, become worse and more tyrannical the grander the scale upon which it is pursued. But government officials’ inadequacy of knowledge – and their abilities (and incentives) to abuse power – kick in the moment they assume the authority to override the outcomes of private market processes. Although no proponent of industrial policy admits this truth – and even granting that most such proponents are too naive to grasp this truth – this truth isn’t rendered null and void by its widespread invisibility.

If you wish to be a cog in a machine designed (necessarily poorly) and operated (equally poorly) by the commentariat, the professoriat, or the political elite, by all means sign up for industrial policy. Have a blast. But please, leave alone those of us who have no such desire to be either pawns or lab rats in your heroes’ social-engineering schemes.

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