--- In [email protected], Jon Roland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It was neither government regulations or the lack thereof that > had much to do with the business cycles of that day or ours, nor could > they. Despite efforts to intervene, there is little government can > do to > moderate business cycles. They are the product of mass psychology and > bad judgment. That is a human defect, not an institutional one.
How can you state with a straight face that there is "little government can do" to affect the economy? The effects of "mass psychology" and "bad judgment" are both amplified EXPONENTIALLY by Government intervention in the marketplace. > Libertarians sometimes participate in the same kind of mass > exuberance > as investors do when they set themselves up for business downturns. > They > speak of "spontaneous order" as though it was the hand of a > benevolent > deity. While the Free Market does not guarantee "spontaneous order", Government intervention DOES guarantee perpetual DISORDER. > As libertarians argue, mostly correctly, > governments, who are composed of human beings, lack the information > or > cognitive capacity to manage complex systems over a long time > period. > But so do the managers of any large organization, including private > corporations. Do you really see no difference between VOLUNTARY and COERCIVE systems in terms of stability? Are those who manage their own affairs just as doomed to failure as those who attempt to forcefully manage the lives of others? > We are all a bunch of stupid animals who are in over our > heads. It's easily to become cynical about the Human Race when you fail to understand what brings out the worst in Human Nature. Poverty and violence are not part of the "natural state" of Humans; they are byproducts of the Tradition of Authority. If we can find a way to break this tradition and neuter the concept of Authority itself then the condition of the Human Race can be drastically improved. ---Sasan
