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> a small government to take care of the essentials and the free market will handle the rest absolutely. Yeah, I used to believe that, because it was such a ne
by dctoedt 3y ago
> a small government to take care of the essentials and the free market will handle the rest absolutely.
Yeah, I used to believe that, because it was such a neat theory and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged seemed so right. (I was a teenager.) Life has convinced me otherwise. There's a sweet spot (which probably moves over time), but free-market absolutists aren't being realistic, largely for the reasons mentioned by 'defrost in response to you.
(NY Times lead economics writer Binyamin Appelbaum got it right in his book The Economists' Hour when he said, of Milton Friedman, that Friedman celebrated drivers but took roads for granted.)
- nerdchum 3y ago> Life has convinced me otherwise. Anec-data you make a lot of claims without a lot of evidence. A single monopolistic entity that can use violence to accomplish it's means is no way to run a country.
- dctoedt 3y ago> you make a lot of claims without a lot of evidence. Wait, are you not the one making sweeping claims about small government and the free market? I'd love to spend several days with you discussing what has caused me to evolve from pretty-conservative and -libertarian Republican in my younger days, to moderate liberal today. Unfortunately, I'm heads-down with, um, work, so I'll have to take a rain check.