The socialist vision of politicized control-regulation of economic interaction has by no means been exorcised from the modern mind-set despite the evidence from reason or from history.
The belief that persons, acting jointly through their membership in collectivities, can effectively “improve” on the spontaneously generated outcomes of market processes remains imbedded in the modern psyche. Despite the overwhelming strength of the evidence, and despite supporting argument, persons cannot readily acquiesce in the stance suggested by post-socialist reality. The romance of socialism, which is dependent both on an idealized politics and a set of impossible behavioral presuppositions, has not yet disappeared.
-James Buchanan (“Notes on the Liberal Constitution“)
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
