William Anderson, in an article critical of Bob Herbert of the NY Times, contrasts his view with that of Herbert’s. Anderson’s opinion on the economic mess is refreshingly Austrian:
… the economic problem is not that American tax rates are too low or that American corporations have decided to produce their goods overseas in more friendly environs.
No, the problem is that government policies have encouraged massive malinvestments for more than a decade and now that same government is blocking the necessary readjustments of capital and resources. Instead of permitting entrepreneurs in a free market to find profitable uses for resources, the authorities insist that hundreds of billions of dollars be diverted to fund boondoggles like high-speed rail, corn-based ethanol, and electric windmills — all projects that will drain this economy of wealth.
Herbert, on the other hand, spouts the same old Keynesian bilge that has never worked:
New ideas on a grand scale are needed. The United States can’t thrive with so many of its citizens condemned to shrunken standards of living because they can’t find adequate employment. Long-term joblessness is a recipe for societal destabilization. It should not be tolerated in a country with as much wealth as the United States. It’s destructive, and it’s wrong.
Government or central planners have no good ideas, only one’s to divert wealth to themselves or friends. The productive sector is filled with good ideas, but unable or unwilling to pursue them as a result of overbearing regulatiory costs, unpredictable laws and general distrust of the government. In free markets living standards would not be shrinking and unemployment would not be a problem. They are major problems as a result of government interventions in the economy.
Why can’t the big government folks understand that big government caused the problem. No more ice cream can be extracted from the productive sector to indulge liberal cockamamie schemes or to redistribute. We are out of money and hurtling toward sovereign bankruptcy!
