Interesting - I wonder if the apathy about the federal deficit is in any way related to the current state of economic education in the US? Or, on the positive side, perhaps the populace has internalized a Hayekian view that the emergence through human action and not design will result in an unintended order?
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/no-really-nobody-cares-about-the-deficit/
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Just because the public isn't getting what it wished, doesn't mean it isn't getting what it needs. I think most Americans understand, on a basic level, is this: We can not continue to live beyond our means. Now if we can educate the average American that job creation is directly related to reduction of the deficit we'd be set.
ReplyDeleteThere is a widespread belief that the government can create . . . jobs, growth, well being. This belief is pervasive and I wonder, given the elements of faith or belief, what the short term prospects are for changing this value of government.
ReplyDeleteIf you mean this particular government's (Obama) values... there is no way they will change. What is positive is that the American public has demonstrated its disbelief this government. The Obama administrations continued actions have made the odds of a recovery in the next two years pretty small. Maybe the American public can be convinced that government isn't the answer.
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ReplyDeleteI was using values as a belief system held by individual. A government cannot hold values, it reflects values held by a group of citizens.
ReplyDeleteI argue that the majority of Americans hold a value set that Sowell articulated in the Conflict of Visions - the unconstrained ideology or value. This value includes a set of beliefs about liberty, security, rights as opposed to freedom, responsibility and the role of the state.
This set of values has emerged and evolved beginning with the progressive movement, further developed (mutated) during the new deal period, found rich soil in the last 40 years of the 20th century and is most evident in farm subsidy (a program enthusiastically supported by members of both parties) the war on drugs, people and free speech. The latter was manifest in the republican Patriot Act - think John Ashcroft and owes an intellectual debt to Lincoln and other war presidents.
I would also fear that beliefs cannot be convinced away - that the change in beliefs is an emergent process that takes time.
So does the future bode an American system that no longer views itself as exceptional? Are we destined to the fate of Europe with a cradle to grave government coverage along with the creeping demographic problems? Or are we looking at a more Orwellian type government? I have my suspicions but I am interested in your opinion.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am not certain about the notion of American Exceptionalism, with all apologies to deTocquille and Lipset. That said, as the participants in the conference honoring Douglass North earlier this month emphsized, and I tend to agree, emergent change in institutions is path dependent, uncertain and very difficult for anyone other than those with hubris to predict.
ReplyDeleteDemographic change in the US will certainly be impacted by Leviathan and the failed efforts to hinder the free flows of people, capital and trade.
North argued that economic growth leads to an increasing demand for state, thus the welfare and warfare state that is so unfortunate.
I am optimistic as Boettke's analogy for the future as a horse race between Smith, Schumpeter and the State. The first two still lead the second.