Re: Priming the World Pump

[Thornton Wheeler <twheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>      In general, my belief is that the Invisible Hand had a reasonable trial
> run during the 19th Century, and that we do not need to spend the next
> century re-learning those lessons.

Protection was paramount in the 19th century.  The situation differs.
Who picks the people to conduct the planning?  You did not answer that.
What if the people choose a Market approach.

"Libertarian" and "Socialist" are oxymoronic in nature.  With majority
rule, you may have people choose socialism for a while.  They then may
choose otherwise as in our last election.  Note how Europeans move back
and forth.  If you establish socialism as a policy in a way which could
not be eliminated or changed by the people, you undermine principles of
libertarian thought.

Libertarians by nature would not want to limit themselves to any economic
philosophy because with knowledge being progressive, we may learn new
modes which would be better.  Those of us who are in the Classical
Liberal tradition view conservatism and socialism as similar.  Both are
protectionist and support the use of government to establish normative
behavior.  Conservatives and Libertarians agree in that they want to
limit the size of government.  Libertarians want to limit the
authority of government, not only its size.  Jefferson's statement that he
wanted "...to stamp out all forms of tyranny over the mind of man!" is
applicable here.

Hayek covers this in more depth in:

"Why I am not a Conservative" 1960. The University of Chicago. THE
	ESSENCE OF HAYEK. Edited by Chiaki Nishiyama & Kurt R. Leube.
	Hoover Press. pp. 281-298. 1984