<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by Nick Gier<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no such thing as\nsociety; there are just individual men and women<\/em>\u2014Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no I taken in\nitself, but only the I of the primary word I-Thou.<\/em>\u2014Martin Buber, I and Thou <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The watchwords of the American and French Revolutions were liberty, equality, and, for the French, fraternity. Redefining fraternity as traditional community values, I see today\u2019s conservative and liberals attempting to balance these three principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The great Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue explains the third principle like this: “Tradition is to the community what memory is to the individual. And if you lose your memory, and you wake up in the morning, you don\u2019t know where you are, who you are, what ground you\u2019re standing on. And if you lose your tradition, it\u2019s the same thing.” In their attempt to start everything anew, the French revolutionaries lost their way, whereas the Americans did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
America\u2019s conservatives focus on traditional values and\neconomic liberty, whereas liberals place greater weight on equality and\npersonal liberty, especially with regard to private interactions. Libertarians\nagree with liberals on the latter, but they champion unfettered economic\nliberty at the expense of equality and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ignoring \u201cMixed\u201d Economy\nSuccess<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Libertarians are just as stubborn and intellectually\ndishonest as Marxist ideologues on the left. The latter ignore the devastation\nbrought on by completely planned economies, but the former refuse to admit that\nthe world\u2019s pragmatic \u201cmixed\u201d public-private systems have been successful. When\nmost European Communists eventually acknowledged that the Soviet Union was an\nabject failure on civil liberties and the \u201ccommand\u201d economy, they joined\ndemocratic socialist parties instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To her credit, libertarian-leaning Margaret Thatcher did not\nprivatize either government health care or the railways. (The later privatizing\nof the latter has been a disaster.) With better results than in the U.S.,\ngovernment doctors in Europe serve their patients well, but everywhere it has\nbeen tried, government farming has been a failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Europe: High in\nInnovation\/Competitiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contrary to libertarian critiques, high taxation in Europe\nand elsewhere has not destroyed economies there; indeed, these nations are\nprospering with much better social and health outcomes. In 2019 the World\nEconomic Forum found that six of these nations ranked in the top ten for\neconomic competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With regard to economic innovation, seven European welfare\nstates stand in the top ten, according to Bloomberg Business. With the most\nlibertarian economy, especially under Trump\u2019s deregulation regime, the U.S. has\ndropped to 11th<\/sup> in this survey after\nranking first for many years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Depression and War Demand Big\nGovernment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just think what would have happened if libertarians had been\nin power during the Great Depression. Massive government intervention was\nnecessary to save the nation, just as it was to win World War II. (Most\nlibertarians are isolationists.) Government secured home loans and college\ngrants allowed returning soldiers to enter the workforce as professionals or\nworkers with high union salaries. With government help they built the middle\nclass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Ronald Reagan fired the unionized Air Traffic\nControllers in1981, major law firms engaged in union busting on a large scale.\nPrivate union membership has fallen from over 30 percent at its highest to\nbelow 9 percent today. As a result, the middle class has eroded as income and\nwealth inequality have risen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Well-Regulated Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Given the wide-spread empirical disconfirmation of\nlibertarian economic theory, I\u2019m even more convinced that the founders should\nhave added another amendment to the Constitution. The Second Amendment calls for a well-regulated\nmilitia to prevent the vigilantism of the sort we now see in support of Trump.\nWe also should have had a provision for a well-regulated economy to prevent the\neconomic vigilantism of modern-day robber barons. We should continue the\npublic-private system that has served all liberal democracies so well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cares Act Saved the\nEconomy<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Government intervention and deficit spending is necessary in\ntimes of depression, war, and now the coronavirus pandemic. The vote for the\nCares Act in March 2020 was overwhelming, but 40 House Republicans and 8 Senate\nRepublicans, enthusiastically led by cocky libertarian Rand Paul, voted against\nit. Just think of where we would be today if they had prevailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This bill saved millions of jobs and gave the economy a huge\nboost\u2014a 33 percent increase in the Gross Domestic Product in the third quarter.\nFor six months Sen. Mitch McConnel refused to consider more aid, and the\ngovernment, primarily because of Trump\u2019s incompetence in controlling the virus,\nended 2020 in recession with a GDP loss of 3.6 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden Invests in Human Capital<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Democrats proposed a second bill in May insisting that\nthe first was only a down payment. After Memorial Day the pandemic raged out of\ncontrol and the Republicans finally, after losing their Senate majority, agreed\nto only $900 billion relief legislation. The new Senate has now passed a bill\nthat will make up for the disastrous six-month delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s Failure as a \u201cWar\u201d\nPresident<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Containing a pandemic can be compared to fighting a war, and\nfor about week Donald Trump called himself a virus war president, but he\nquickly lost interest in what that would actually entail. It would have at least required of him to\nlisten to his public health \u201cgenerals,\u201d engage the Defense Production Act, and\ncoordinate with the states instead of fighting with their governors. One year\nand tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths later, President Joe Biden is finally\ndoing what Trump and the Republicans should have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vaccines: A Private-Public\nPartnership<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Libertarians boast about the record setting roll-out of\nvaccines, but these companies were primarily motivated by the big profits that\nthey will reap. The World Health Organization is calling on the major\nmanufacturers to end their monopolies, share their technology, and waive all\nintellectual property rights. This would lead to increase in world-wide\ndistribution and a reduction in price for poor countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These drug companies would also have to concede that years of\nresearch at the National Institutes of Health and public universities such as\nthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, and\nOxford University have made their vaccines a success. Private-public\npartnerships have always been a key to many human achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cConfucian\u201d Capitalism\nSucceeds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I have shown in a previous column (search here \u201cAsia\nvirus\u201d), \u201cAsia\u2019s Virus Champs Don\u2019t Blame China: They Simply Get the Job Done,\u201d\nthese countries took aggressive, early action and have kept the virus in check.\nDeaths from South Korea to Singapore have been limited to several thousand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of these nations have been described as economic\n\u201ctigers,\u201d and the key to their success is what some have called \u201cConfucian\ncapitalism.\u201d Strong cultural traditions that carefully balance the \u201cI\u201d and the\n\u201cWe\u201d prevent the disruption of libertarian instincts. Asians are faithful mask\nwearers and they are amazed that this simple precaution has been politicized in\nthe U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
European Virus Failures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the lower end of the Pacific Rim, Australia and New\nZealand, culturally similar to Europe and built by Social Democrats, have had\nremarkable success with the virus. Out of 30 million people, the Aussies (909)\nand the Kiwis (25) have suffered only 934 deaths. In stark contrast, most\nEuropean countries have experienced a horrible winter surge in cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early in the pandemic some young people in Europe held\n\u201ccorona\u201d parties, and even some adults were not exempt. The leader of Italy\u2019s\nDemocrats (no connection to the U.S.) held his own festivities. Youth in the\nNetherlands are now rioting because of a virus curfew, so it just shows that\nlibertarian instincts are present in Europe as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Germany, where there were good results early on, the issue\nhas now been politicized. Just as in the\nU.S., Germany\u2019s hard right party has been the source of the most resistance to\nvirus restrictions. Sweden\u2019s \u201clight touch\u201d policy and appeals to personal\nresponsibility has led to one of the highest death tolls in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deficits Spending Necessary in\nthis Crisis <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contrary to what people may think, the U.S. has pumped more\nmoney into its economy than the Europeans. The result is lower budget deficits\n(9% vs. U.S.\u2019s15%), but higher unemployment (8.3% vs. 7.6%) and deeper\nrecession (-7.6% vs. -3.6%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is ironic to see the U.S. wisely embracing deficit\nspending in a time of crisis when the Europeans are more prone to do this. In\n2009, Republicans convinced Obama\/Biden to have a small stimulus, and the\nresult was the slowest economic recovery in since World War II. Biden promises\nthat he will not let that happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2017, the GOP argued that their huge tax cut would \u201cpay\nfor itself,\u201d but most companies bought back their stock rather than investing\nthe tax savings. The result was a budget deficit that rose from Obama\u2019s 3.4\npercent (he reduced it from 9.8 percent over 8 years) to 4.8 percent, and now\nit is 15 percent because of the pandemic and the stimulus bills. Trump gave\ncorporations a huge break, but Biden\u2019s deficient spending will save the\neconomy, invest in human capital, and eventually pay for itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would You Trust a Libertarian\nGovernment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would you trust a libertarian government during war, economic\ndepression, or plague? The former Soviet Union was a horrible government which\noppressed and murdered its people and ran its economy into the ground. It did,\nhowever, organize its citizens and military forces to defeat Nazi Germany, at\nthe cost of 26 million casualties on the eastern front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Libertarian idol Ayn Rand believes that selfishness is the\nsupreme virtue, but I hope we all agree that this is no way to organize human\nsociety\u2014either morally or economically. The Asians know this better than any\nother people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ronald Reagan would have been 110 years old on February 6,\nand libertarians celebrate his \u201cnine most terrifying\u201d words: \u201cI\u2019m from the\ngovernment, and I\u2019m here to help.\u201d I\u2019m sure that tens of millions of Americans\nwere glad that this year the government did knock on their doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31\nyears. For more on libertarianism and Reagan see\nwebpages.uidaho.edu\/ngier\/liberalism.htm and \/reaganmyths.htm. Read more on the\nThird Way between communism and capitalism at webpages.uidaho.edu\/ngier\/ThirdWay.htm.\nEmail him at ngier006\u2202<\/span><\/span>gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"