The Other Road to Serfdom
Much has made about the intellectual bankruptcy of the Chicago “school” of economic thought. As I scanned the weekend talk shows, it occurred to me that Rand Paul’s comments regarding the BP oil spill could be the last nail in the coffin of Milton Friedman’s ideals.
Visit msnbc.com to see Libertarian Paul defends oil and gas company
This is not a political statement. I’m talking about a social phenomenon — the possible end to the religion of unfettered free market CORPORATE capitalism — as the masses realize they’ve been had.
When it happened in Bhopal, it didn’t matter. When it happened in Lake Chinchaycocha, no one cared. Melamine-tainted milk? Bah, that’s far away in China. The 29 dead in the Massey mine blowup was simply the cost of doing business. The 11 dead on the Deepwater Horizon was presumably regrettable.
This time could be different. The downside of the Libertarian dream, the so-called negative externalities — a sterile term in economics lexicon — have become tangible in the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
This time, it was AIG, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Fanny and Freddie spewing toxic byproducts of barely-regulated economic activities conducted across borders by behemoth multinational corporations, Wall Street finance that buried Main Street in a hail of collateral damage in the form of millions of lost jobs, deflated real estate and stock values.
This time, it hit home, literally.
This time could be the second coming of Jim Hightower because Libertarianism for corporations turned out to be another road to serfdom.
P.S. If anything, Dr. Paul wasted a golden opportunity to compare and contrast crony capitalism/corporate welfare to individual entrepreneurs struggling to start businesses. Sensible regulation of the Goliaths levels the playing field for the Davids.
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MORE VIDEO: What does oil spill say about responsibility?
Anthony 5:51 PM on May 25, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
P.S. If anything, Dr. Paul wasted a golden opportunity to compare and contrast crony capitalism/corporate welfare to individual entrepreneurs struggling to start businesses. Sensible regulation of the Goliaths levels the playing field for the Davids.
For sure, Libertarianism should have a healthy dose of grass-roots populism, and recognizing crony govt corporatism for the evil that it is would help offset the cognitive dissonance present in the rest of Rand Paul’s ludicrous belief system. I just think that guys like Rand Paul get so caught up in their principled ideology that they fail to grasp the practicalities of governing within a complex dynamic system– it reminds me of the ideological bishops who accept the confessions of pedophile priests, yet immediately ex-communicate the nun who “allowed” an abortion to save a woman’s life. Purism to a fault.
Teresa Lo 9:04 PM on May 25, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Exactly. To borrow a line from a recent CFR article, it’s 19th-century policy prescriptions applied to 21st-century realities. Dr. Paul should have been the first guy to speak out on BP’s military industrialesque business practices.