Feinsten reaction essay at CATO

Feinsten has an interesting response to McCluskey over on CATO Unbound.

As I mull over this process I can identify in Feinsten the elite and perhaps unconstrained vision of the planner. He writes that "we" can . . . and then goes on to describe a process he deems appropriate.

Creativity, an essential ingredient of adaptively efficient societies, entrepreneurship, and Schumpterian destruction seems to me to be an emergent and evolutionary outcome of natural liberty. For Feinstein to assert that "we" can go further implies a plan, set of goals and overarching policy.

Perhaps I am misreading this Yale scholar and his extension is not an intellectual justification for centralized action - centralization that can stifle rather than encourage emergent solutions to as yet unanticipated challenges.

The valuation of creativity and innovation is an ongoing historical process that we believe can go a good deal further. This belief perhaps helps sharpen the difference between us and McCloskey. . . . Now, in the twenty-first century, our views on human creative potential need to be developed even further

We seem the hubris of the elite here in a demand that a problem or opportunity exists and something needs to be done. What is that, you ask?

Feinstein answers:

We envision a scenario in which individuals are taught the process of creative development and are encouraged to embark on their own paths of discovery and development. This can happen in the classroom, the workplace, or the open spaces of personal time.

We know that "the classroom" at least administered by the state is not a successful institution for fostering much of anything. The workplace, as Milton Friedman pointed out has an important social responsibility and it most certainly does not include a Feinstein (or Pratt agenda) and the last comment is ambiguous and a little terrifying.

Is Feinstein suggesting that the state invade by personal space to determine what is open (the state's space) and closed (my space). This last phrase cries out for elaboration and explanation.

The Nov. 2009 discussion - How the World got Modern is an interesting read to this topic.

http://www.cato-unbound.org/archives/november-2009-how-the-world-got-modern/