-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.28/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.28/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 28 </A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times July 12, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 28 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Political and Media Utopianism by Tibor R. Machan You’ve probably heard the saying, "The perfect is the enemy is the good." This is the curse of utopianism or idealism whereby folks aren’t looking for what works best, what produces the greatest possible good, but for what would solve everything, maybe even forever. Consider, as an example, President Clinton cruising the country to whip up support for his party. In the course of his travels he admonishes us in his various speeches to support his plans to make sure that every poor person necessarily benefits from American productivity. He is thus buying into this kind of utopian thinking. OK, he is a politician and perhaps by now it is common for such folks to deploy hyperbole instead of good sense. But must members of the media become complicit? Much of TV News appears to agree. In a recent report on competition among HMOs, broadcast on a major network’s evening news program, we were asked, would the process benefit everyone? Would all of those concerned get good medical coverage? "Perfect" Ain’t Perfect No, nothing is going to work out for everyone all of the time. Rarely if ever can a process such as economic competition benefit everyone equally well. Competition is "only" the best way to produce results in the production and distribution of goods and services in a community. But those who seek control of community affairs are never satisfied with what is best. They are likely, instead, to hold out the promise of the perfect solution. Now there is one pretty certain thing about such an alternative: it will wreak havoc with the production and distribution of goods and services. Why? Because the folks in control simply cannot know what works best for those who seek those goods and services. This is the great insight of such classical liberal economists as Ludwig von Mises and Frederick A. von Hayek. They spent a great portion of their careers examining the feasibility of the planned economy in general. Their finding was decisive: the knowledge needed to produce and distribute goods and services simply cannot be obtained by those at the top -- that is, in government bureaucracies. We might add to this that neither could they secure the widespread initiative or practical effort to achieve this g oal, given that government initiatives are very often firmly resisted by a large segment of the population. (This is one reason there are so many lawyers employed in highly paid jobs!) Only if the free market is at work, wherein millions and millions of consumers and producers communicate with each other by means of millions and millions of particular transactions will the knowledge needed to secure the best results be put to effective use. The people in the market are best qualified to know what serves their wants and needs. When you go shopping for anything at all, be it something essential or trivial, you have the best chance at recording your wants and your budgetary limits and those with whom you do the trading can, thus, make use of this information. That information will help the millions of decisions that are made all the way through the complex productive processes of the community. If, however, we leave it to Mr. Clinton and his army of bureaucrats, the process will be seriously corrupted. Others who aren’t close to your situation will be making decisions that bear on your life. Sure, now and then they may hit the mark. And if they want your support in elections, they may make use of your wish list and deliver to you what you want. But this will be at the expense of others who must pay for it by having legally to comply with extensive regulations, price supports, protectionism, taxes, and so forth. Imagination One problem is that we can always imagine perfect solutions. Imagination works well in art, where the objective is to sketch a vision, a happy ending. Art leaves out most of the details -- sort of like the artist’s rendition of a new building which then engineers must make actual. And soon that artist’s rendition will be filled in with a great deal that is quite good but also not quite what the imagination constructed. We can also imagine an economy that lacks any poverty at all. Loosely, yes, we can imagine it. But in reality this image is a falsehood. It does not figure in the millions who may not want to work at the job that, under the realities of the economy, is best for them. They hold out for their dream jobs. They prefer some other course than the one that gains them the best living, given what others would like to have produced for them. The job security that is the dream of everyone simply cannot be realized because, well, some have ideal jobs in mind that few want to have performed or performed at the cost they are willing to pay. And then there is also that irksome fact that some folks simply ruin their chances for a decent living -- or, more sadly, events occur over which they have no control and these prevent them from working. For example, in his recent travels, President Clinton met someone who cannot work because he suffers from emphysema. We were not told by the reporters how the individual fell victim to this disease -- was it some virus or was it, perhaps, self-inflicted by extensive smoking or other bad habits. In any case, the individual is now poor, relative to the standards laid down by bureaucrats (though one may wonder if he is poor relative to, say, standards applicable in India or Malaysia). There is simply no way to produce the utopia that will solve everyone’s problems, be these economic, romantic, educational, psychological or what have you. One thing we do know by now, however. If politicians and their supporters impose policies that attempt to secure those utopian ways of life, there will be hell to pay. That is, among other things, the lesson of both the demise of the Soviet system and the sluggishness of the socialist European economic order, the so-called "third way" that is being hailed by politicians abroad these days. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tibor Machan, a philsopher, was previously interviewed by Alberto Mingardi for The Laissez Faire City Times ( http://zolatimes.com/V2.21/Tmachan.html ). He is associated with Freedom Communications of Irvine, CA; the School of Business & Economics, Chapman University, in Orange, CA; and the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 28, July 12, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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