Johnston: Market as important as ever
The vulgar right prophesies socialism ascendant, but its hyperventilated ranting is the scrap of a wholly different national transformation. The triumph of the market is at hand, and the era of limited government is over.
We are told that the Republicans of the last decade have abandoned their principles, on account of their participation in growing the size of government. What about the prior two decades? Government became larger then, too. Did Ronald Reagan abandon his principles? Has there never been a principled Republican?
This allegation is all too easy. It is better...
Don't you mean 'Free markets make free men"? At least when the YPU debated it, they suggeted forward causality. But your aphorism is perhaps more appropriate for demonstrating the absurdity of the argument.
When free markets are thought to be "equal" to free people, they end up merely being a substitute for them.
The last 30 years have been at best stagnation and at worst diaster for everyone not lucky enough to prosper from the booms and crunches of an increasingly unregulated financial system. Today's workers are no better educated than before, no more secure in their livelihoods; today's families are less cohesive, as respect for honest labor has eroded, and respect for instant, illusory profits has gained.
If we actually cares about freedom or markets, wehave to actually address the root causes of both rather than thinking theat there is directionality either way. What does that mean? It means effective government oversight to prevent monopoolies and collusion, creating structures that promote constanst entrpenuerial spirit at both a local and national level by helping jump start small business, enforcing labor standards so that freedom is not contingent on wealth, protecting people's rights not only to vote but also the ability to get to the polls, and otherwise engaging in the messy business of governing — which requires both a faith in government's ability to work and a commitment to ensuring it does, and which is precisely the opposite of the mindet since 1980 that government was the problem and that free markets, here and abroad, were sufficient to make free men and women.
This was silly. The more I learn about Mr. Johnston's political philosophy the more convinced I become that his ideal society would be the Taliban: traditional values, suppression of the individual, not-explicitly socialistic. That is not a mode of living that accords with the American experience. Maybe he should move to Afghanistan.
What an absurd comment! Peter is Christian, not Muslim.
Yes, the Taliban are great believers in a free market and individual liberty.
wait what
Good effort piling on there, but Peter's not really big on individual liberty (c.f. everything he's ever written)
Free Markets = Free People