Monday 14 April 2008

The next defender of the market (updated)

Peter Boettke over at The Austrian Economists is Desperately Seeking Ludwig, F. A., and Milton. Boettke is worried, with good reason, that rhetoric of economic statism is yet again on the rise in the US, and other places eg New Zealand, and he fears that the rhetoric will soon be followed by policy action. Boettke argues
Right now the economics profession has not had a clear intellectual leader step forward to challenge the emerging statist hegemony in the wake of our current financial situation. We are in a state of desparately seeking the next Ludwig, F. A., and Milton.
He goes on to ask
Where is the next intellectual figure that will explain the impossibility of socialism, why the worst get on top, and why government policies are counter-productive?
But isn't the answer, all of us. We have the intellectual heritage of von Mises, Hayek and Friedman etal, what greater weapon do we need. We have great ideas and this is a battle to do with ideas, not men. Let us use these ideas ourselves to argue as to why statism is wrong. We can not wait for someone else to do the job for us, it is time for a marginal revolution, we must convince other people one at time.

Update: Not PC points out you have to Speak up, the statists can't hear you!

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