… is from page 338 of the 5th edition (2015) of Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics:
A market economy allows accurate knowledge to be effective in influencing decision-making, even if 99 percent of the population do not have that knowledge. In politics, however, the 99 percent who do not understand can create immediate political success for elected officials and for policies that will turn out in the end to be harmful to society as a whole. It would of course be unreasonable to expect the general public to become financial experts or any other kind of experts, since there are only 24 hours in the day and people have lives to lead. What may be more reasonable is to expect enough voters to see the dangers in letting many economic decisions be made through political processes.
DBx: When you’re next in a supermarket spending the monetary fruits of an hour or two or three of your labor, observe the items that you buy and ask yourself how much you know about how to make those things. Ask also if you know the names of all the persons whose efforts were devoted to making those items available to you at affordable prices. Ask if you know where those persons live – what their religious and political beliefs are – how they acquired the skills that made possible their contributions to your well-being – what they are doing with the monetary fruits of their economic contributions.
You, of course, know almost nothing along these lines. You couldn’t possibly ever have such knowledge even if you were granted ten lifetimes. And yet, you routinely shop in supermarkets and expect to find there, at prices you have no trouble paying, a bounty from around the world.
Now ask yourself why anyone should give any credence whatsoever to the claims of the likes of Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Navarro, Oren Cass, J.D. Vance, Josh Hawley, Lina Khan, or Joesph Stiglitz that they or the government officials they will direct or advise have enough knowledge both to know that the market as it currently operates is ‘failing’ and that they possess enough knowledge and information to override market processes in ways that will improve the general welfare.
None of the individuals mentioned above – or, indeed, anyone else – knows even enough to make available to you that jar of peanut butter or that roll of paper towels that you hold in your hands as you walk to the cash register. What miracle do you suppose is at work that gives these people enough knowledge to re-engineer the entire economy – enough knowledge to justify entrusting such people with coercive powers to re-engineer society?
