… is from page 307 of Kristian Niemietz’s important 2019 book, Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies:
Since economic activity cannot be coordinated by scarcity signals – i.e. market prices – the only substitute is command and control. When people do not behave in the way economic planners want them to behave, the state needs to use force to make them comply.
DBx: Do not overlook this reality: Industrial policy is not a series of recommendations that the state kindly offers to citizens. It is, instead, a set of commands that the state imposes on its citizens. The state will enforce these commands against any and all who resist them, with violence if necessary. Government officials will cage you if you refuse to obey their orders. And if you resist this caging with sufficient stubbornness, these same government officials will see to it that you are killed.
So-called “industrial policy” is not sweet counseling. It is brute force.
If you trust Donald Trump and his lieutenants and lackeys with such power, I pity you for your gullibility. Ditto if you trust with such power Joe Biden and his cronies and keepers. If you trust any human being with such power, you are a fool.
Unfortunately, the world is overpopulated with such fools.