The High Liberal [Progressivism/Socialism -Skip] story is, in a few brief mottos to stand for a rich intellectual tradition since the 1880s: Modern life is complicated, and so we need government to regulate.
Since markets fail very frequently, the government should step in to fix them. Government can do the regulation well, and will not be regularly incompetent or regularly corrupted. Without a big government we cannot do certain noble things (the interstates, NASA, poor relief). Antitrust works. The big danger is not big government armed with guns but big business business armed with business plans….
To all this, in the words of the little boy protesting in his high chair in the classic New Yorker cartoon, I say it’s spinach, and I say to hell with it. The master narrative of High Liberalism is factually mistaken. Externalities do not imply that a government can do better…. Efficiency is not the chief merit of a market economy – bettering is, a matter of innovation over time.
-Deirdre McCloskey (Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All)
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
