No, Virginia, Liberal Intellectuals Do Not Learn from Experience
Despite the failure of big government schemes to foster innovation or create wealth, Democrats here and leftists worldwide continue to promote them as Stephen Moore points out in How Barack Obama is Bankrupting the U.S. Economy:
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about one of my last conversations with [Milton] Friedman when he warned that “even though socialism is a discredited economic model and capitalism is raising living standards to new heights, the left intellectuals continue to push for bigger government everywhere I look.” He predicted that people would be seduced by collectivist ideas again. He was right.
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Left-liberalism appeals to the emotions of the ignorant and the non-freedom-loving: their desire to be taken care of by society’s authority figures (Mommy/Daddy) and simultaneously, their desire to appear morally superior about it.
Therefore, left-liberalism will always be with us. The people who value freedom and reason will always have to speak up and combat it.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — January 6, 2010 @ 3:25 pm - January 6, 2010
Thomas Sowell just wrote a book about this as well. Basically that most of the intellectuals are insulated from the consequences of their decisions.
Comment by The_Livewire — January 6, 2010 @ 3:51 pm - January 6, 2010
Which must be why liberal intellectuals are pushing the same economic policies (big government spending, tax increases, massive regulation) that prolonged the Great Depression, have given Japan two decades of stagnation, and driven California and New York to the brink of insolvency.
Either that, or they know what these policies will do, and are deliberately hastening the demise of the USA.
Comment by V the K — January 6, 2010 @ 5:40 pm - January 6, 2010
I’ll wait until Tano shows up with the talking points.
Comment by heliotrope — January 6, 2010 @ 6:32 pm - January 6, 2010
Like clock-work heliotrope, I’m sure.
Comment by Steven E. Kalbach — January 6, 2010 @ 7:41 pm - January 6, 2010
Livewire, thanks to amazon, that book just arrived in my home today.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — January 6, 2010 @ 8:03 pm - January 6, 2010
Thanks to hope and change, I have to get a copy from the library.
Comment by The_Livewire — January 6, 2010 @ 8:16 pm - January 6, 2010
I might read that, but the next book on my Amazon list is “Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”
Comment by V the K — January 6, 2010 @ 10:03 pm - January 6, 2010
People seldom think to subject their religion to empirical verification.
Comment by Classical Liberal Dave — January 7, 2010 @ 3:48 am - January 7, 2010