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Thursday, June 28, 2012

The death of the U.S. Constitution

The death of the U.S. Constitution

 

June 28, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement reacting to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Obamacare:

 

"The U.S. Constitution died today.  The underlying hope and belief that our nation's founding document protected individual freedoms from an ever encroaching government is a thing of the past based upon this ruling.  It is inconceivable how these nine lifetime appointed jurists could have decided to keep a law that is such a blatant intrusion into each of our lives, but the result of their decision is that individuals can no longer rely on the federal government power being limited by anything other than the political pressure their individual elected representatives feel.  Ultimately, the Supreme Court has opted out of the battle to retain our freedoms, and has thrown in entirely with those who advocated for unlimited government authority.  It is truly a sad day for our nation."

 

Interview Availability: Americans for Limited Government (ALG) will be providing in-depth analysis of the legal, regulatory, and political fallout of the Supreme Court's sweeping ruling. Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or atrrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson and other experts on Obamacare and the Court's ruling, including ObamacareWatcher.org editor-in-chief, John Vinci, Esq. and ALG Counsel Nathan Mehrens.


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Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call us at 703-383-0880 or visit our website atwww.GetLiberty.org.


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Thursday, June 21, 2012

The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws

The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws

by Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is a former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. He currently heads Applied Economic Strategies, LLC, and has more than 25 years of experience researching labor force economic issues.


  Sans Serif
  Serif

The federal government has imposed a minimum wage since 1938, and nearly all the states impose their own minimum wages. These laws prevent employers from paying wages below a mandated level. While the aim is to help workers, decades of economic research show that minimum wages usually end up harming workers and the broader economy. Minimum wages particularly stifle job opportunities for low-skill workers, youth, and minorities, which are the groups that policymakers are often trying to help with these policies.

There is no "free lunch" when the government mandates a minimum wage. If the government requires that certain workers be paid higher wages, then businesses make adjustments to pay for the added costs, such as reducing hiring, cutting employee work hours, reducing benefits, and charging higher prices. Some policymakers may believe that companies simply absorb the costs of minimum wage increases through reduced profits, but that's rarely the case. Instead, businesses rationally respond to such mandates by cutting employment and making other decisions to maintain their net earnings. These behavioral responses usually offset the positive labor market results that policymakers are hoping for.

This study reviews the economic models used to understand minimum wage laws and examines the empirical evidence. It describes why most of the academic evidence points to negative effects from minimum wages, and discusses why some studies may produce seemingly positive results.

Some federal and state policymakers are currently considering increases in minimum wages, but such policy changes would be particularly damaging in today's sluggish economy. Instead, federal and state governments should focus on policies that generate faster economic growth, which would generate rising wages and more opportunities for all workers.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ray Bradbury: Anarchist at Heart

Ray Bradbury: Anarchist at Heart

Mises Daily: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 by

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Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012)

On June 5, acclaimed author Ray Bradbury passed away. I can't say I have been much affected by the loss. My relationships with most authors typically begin and end within the pages of their books. I find that delving into writers' and actors' lives — specifically the components of their political beliefs — is often a disappointing venture to complete. Yet it still saddens me that our world is no longer graced by the man's presence.

It is interesting that he descended from Mary Bradbury, a woman who was convicted and sentenced to hang in the 1600s during the infamous Salem witch trials. After such brutalities were imposed on the family, I can't tell if it's nature or nurture that Ray grew up to be skeptical of the way things were. Among Mary's other descendents is Ralph Waldo Emerson, the world-renowned individualist writer who grew up to say, "The less government we have the better." I found out a few years ago that one of my great-great-great-great- ad infinitum grandmothers, too, was prosecuted as a witch during the Puritans' wicked trials. I can take this only as a fantastic compliment and hope that my antistate relatives were fighting the good fight with the Bradbury family, leading to the libertarian ideals I now cherish so deeply.

Bradbury's first original book, Fahrenheit 451, is a fiery testament against the censorship of opposing ideas. He maintained repeatedly that the people — not the state — were the book's antagonists, but the real enemy, more than the actual individuals in question, was their obsession with political correctness, which led to the shredding and burning of old literature in the first place. And as anyone will tell you, we libertarians typically have little patience for political correctness. It does nothing except dilute the true meaning of words and stupefies the population into apathy.

He further touches on this issue in the coda of Fahrenheit 451, spurred by editors erasing the phrases "God-Light" and "in the Presence" from his story. Bradbury writes,

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority … feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

The Libertarian Tradition
"Revisit Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451" by Jeff Riggenbach

It is possibly why the author found no use for this elitist attitude so frequently found in modern universities. Bradbury didn't go to college. Many claim this kind of decision turns people into economic underlings. (Ironically enough, Bradbury wrote the first draft of Fahrenheit 451 while physically underneath the UCLA campus.) The fact that the novel is now considered a staple of American literature proves that these pro-university critics were — and, frankly, still are — incorrect.

He spoke of disliking formal education in an interview with the New York Times:

I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.

Not every libertarian is anti-university, per se, but most of us do see these overgrown institutions as the accidental offspring of government intervention. A mix of federal agencies, accreditation licenses, and obscene financial-aid packages have converted efficient trade schools into bureaucratic (and thus extremely expensive) nightmares offering courses and majors on topics unrelated to any industry needed in the market. A quick glimpse of today's public school system, I'm sure, would have shown Bradbury the dystopic stasis he hoped America would never become.

Like us, he held optimism in the people's ability to correct these problems without the dictates of the nosy politicians scavenging in Washington, DC. This hatred of the state came to light during an interview with Time magazine almost two years ago. When asked if he'd been upholding his antipolitical reputation, Bradbury responded with strong words, making sure to provide some sage advice on the potential of peaceful, loving resolutions:

I don't believe in government. I hate politics. I'm against it. And I hope that sometime this fall, we can destroy part of our government, and next year destroy even more of it. The less government, the happier I will be.… All I can do is teach people to fall in love. My advice to them is, do what you love and love what you do. Then you become free of all laws and all gravity.

Indeed. There is little more to add. It's a shame I never knew these things as I read Bradbury's books many years ago. Perhaps I would have read them more slowly, paid extra attention to certain paragraphs, and taken a deep breath afterwards to reflect on the chance that maybe, somewhere deep in the plotline, there was more than just a fantasy. The conversation with ancient writers, the nonstop rain on a distant rock, watching the earth catch on fire from the edge of Mars — we'll probably never know if these descriptions were symbols of something we'll finally understand years into the future.

But this we do know: a wonderful human being — who left behind a literary legacy of fighting for the freedom to acquire and share knowledge — passed away as Venus and the sun crossed paths; the two symbols of love and truth mark a beautiful end to a life we'll remember for a long time.

They all came out and looked at the sky that night.… There was Earth and there the coming war, and there hundreds of thousands of mothers and grandmothers or fathers or brothers or aunt or uncles or cousins. They stood on the porches and tried to believe in the existence of Earth, much as they had once tried to believe in the existence of Mars. (The Martian Chronicles)



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Friday, June 08, 2012

MISES dAILYOf Krugman and Diocletian

Of Krugman and Diocletian

Mises Daily: Friday, June 08, 2012 by

Several weeks ago, a most intriguing exchange occurred on Bloomberg News wherein presidential candidate Ron Paul, the foremost voice for Austrian School economic policies, faced off against Paul Krugman, New York Times economic columnist and recent winner of the Nobel Prize for economics. While the entire debate is noteworthy, one particular portion of the exchange stands out:

Paul Krugman: "I am not a defender of the economic policies of the emperor Diocletian. Let's just make that clear."

Ron Paul: "Well, you are. In a way, you are. That's exactly what you're defending."

Fortunately, this is an easy assertion to test given Krugman's copious writings and the fairly extensive historical information available regarding the Roman emperor Diocletian. A look at Krugman's New York Times blog and op-ed pieces allows for a fairly easy summation of his positions: on January 8, 2009, he disparaged President Obama's proposed "stimulus package" of $775 billion as "not enough"; on April 19, 2009, he called for a "credible" commitment to higher inflation; and on October 7, 2010, he cited such programs as the Hoover Dam, the Erie Canal, and the Interstate Highway System as examples of the type of projects required to revitalize the moribund economy. More recently — including during his April 30, 2012, debate with Dr. Paul — Krugman has strenuously expressed the view that the continuing slump owes largely to insufficiently interventionist monetary and fiscal measures undertaken by the government and the Federal Reserve. But while the ongoing stagnation of the US economy — now in its fifth year — has been wrenching, the Roman Empire facing Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century CE was dwindling rapidly; a shadow of its former might.

Decade after decade of uncontrolled spending, a substantial part of which went to purchase the military's loyalty, finally resulted in runaway inflation and then spiraled into hyperinflation. Between 235 and 284 CE, no less than 20 different figureheads, from politicians to generals, seized the throne; each transition typically starting and ending in violence. Capitalizing on the upheaval, neighboring Germanic tribes grew bolder, launching invasions as far into the empire as Italy proper. Other neighboring powers, including the massive Sassanid Persian Empire loomed, hungrily eyeing Rome's decline.

This was a Roman Empire far from the glorious days of Augustus and the Pax Romana; fear and ruin were now the order of the day. With prices rocketing up and the economy awash in valueless coins, barter became the basis for transactions, further increasing hardship. Many Roman citizens fled the cities to claim lands in the countryside or to enter into tenant-farming relationships with landowners; in either case, choosing to eke out a subsistence-level existence. Many small businesses, productive trades and craft skills were abandoned in the wake of exodus. And finally, in an eschatological capstone, a virulent plague spread throughout portions of the empire, killing untold numbers. By 259 CE, the empire splintered into three separate states.

Aurelian, emperor from 270 to 275 CE, undertook a series of reforms intended to reverse the slide. First he took military action: he defeated several of the encroaching German tribes in a series of campaigns that pushed them back from the borders, built walls and defensive works, and forcibly reintegrated the secessionist regions.

Next, he sought to address the monetary collapse in a novel way: instead of further degrading the metal content of the coins (which by this time were simply dipped in silver or copper), he reminted new versions of older, trifling coins and proclaimed their value: confidence being his chosen vehicle for resuscitating the monetary system. While the coins varied from one to the next in actual metal content, it was decreed that several denominations of the new coins, called antoniniani, would add up to one predebasement denarius.

This was only a psychological tactic to stabilize the monetary system, of course, but it worked to some degree and as coin values stabilized, prices leveled off as well. But in a theme that would return to badger his successor, many of the successful measures he undertook simultaneously undermined others, crippling the Roman economy still further. An example is Aurelian's strategy to keep the urban workforce in the cities, which anticipates both the implementation and unintended consequences of the modern welfare state:

In the year 274 AD Emperor Aurelian, wishing to provide cradle-to-grave care for the citizenry, declared the right to relief to be hereditary. Those whose parents received government benefits were entitled as a matter of right to benefits as well. And, Aurelian gave welfare recipients government-baked bread (instead of the old practice of giving them wheat and letting them bake their own bread) and added free salt, pork, and olive oil. Not surprisingly, the ranks of the unproductive grew fatter, and the ranks of the productive grew thinner.[1]

With the Roman economy temporarily stable but precariously balanced, the stage was set for the ascendance of Gaius Aurelis Valerius Diocletianus Augustus. From a simple upbringing in modern day Croatia, Diocletian rose through the military ranks to become a general and emerge amid the tumult of the end of the 3rd century as emperor in 284 CE.

He sprang into action. First and foremost, the Roman state needed plunder to accomplish its ends, and Diocletian found the imperial coffers inadequately stocked even after Aurelian's stopgap measures. So his first major undertaking was, in modern terms, to "rationalize" the then-haphazard internal-revenue apparatus.

First, he assessed the need to increase the effectiveness of tax collecting with the eye of a military logistician, and he did so by systematizing the state's knowledge about the population's wealth and resources. He did this using a police-state measure familiar to us today: the census. Second, with that data, legions of newly hired government accountants and collection agents set about calculating exactly how much — directly, in currency or in kind — a given individual or community would be required to pay: capitatio, roughly translating to "tax liability." The principle was absolutist to its core, with the Roman state asserting the right to take as much as it needed from the populace to pursue its self-determined mandates. Tax assessments and collections were now bureaucratized. And finally, the heartland of the empire — present-day Italy — lost its long-coveted tax exemption.

It is important to return, here, to the Krugman's assertion that he doesn't advocate policies akin to Diocletian's. In fact, on January 19, 2012, Krugman wrote that "The main reason [that] the rich pay so little [in taxes] is that most of their income takes the form of capital gains, which are taxed at a maximum rate of 15 percent, far below the maximum on wages and salaries," going on to say that "claims [that low capital gains tax promote both economic growth and job creation] are false." In suggesting that taxes on these forms of investments — financial instruments, ownership in corporate entities, property, and the like, not to mention carried interest on alternative investments — be raised dramatically, and considering the often-illiquid nature of such holdings, Krugman is essentially touting a modern payment-in-kind tax code directed at the wealthy.

With the machinery of mass appropriation codified and staffed, Diocletian turned his attention toward the other pressing issues of the era: maintaining the military's loyalty and working to arrest social upheaval by building on Aurelian's economic ballasts. His next enactment, in 286 CE, was to issue a nearly pure gold coin, a new aureus, struck at 60 to 1 pound of gold. It was only used, however, to pay generals and high-level administrators, as gold was in very short supply. As per Gresham, gold had disappeared from circulation during the ravages of the recent hyperinflation — buried, melted into plates, or molded into jewelry and ornaments. Soldiers were still largely paid in goods, which had to be collected (or seized) from the broad population, so further monetary innovations were necessary; paying the military was of utmost importance for Diocletian to remain in control.

The silver content of the common denarius was improved, adding real economic value to Aurelian's confidence-building measures. Throughout the empire, however, prices began to rise yet again. What Diocletian may not have known (and, if he did know it, it might not have given him pause, as the ancient Romans had few economic theories) is that his fiscal policies were sabotaging his attempts at currency improvement. The state mints were pouring vast quantities of the new coins into circulation to pay for his other programs. And those programs, a wave of vast public-work projects, resulted in the Roman government outbidding private entities, running prices back up in the process. "By no means," wrote C.E. Van Sickle of Franklin College, are "the least of Diocletian's claims to pre-eminence among the Roman emperors to be found in his energy … as [a] builder."[2] From Gaul to Africa, roads, bridges, aqueducts, baths, and temples — not least of which were three huge armories in Damascus, Antioch, and Emesa — were either built anew or, where repairs had lapsed, were fixed.

But at least one contemporary critic saw the infrastructural projects as "reckless extravagance in the expenditure of public funds," chastising the effort:

Here public halls, there a circus, here a mint, and there a factory for warlike stores; in one place a habitation for his wife, and in another place one for his daughter.

To manage the newly revamped tax system, the hyperactive mints, multitudes of public-work projects and the affairs of the nascent Tetrarchy — Diocletian's division of the empire into four separately managed regions — the Roman bureaucracy exploded.

He … created so many boards, commissions, and bureaus that every Roman with any pretensions to political pull had a government job, while his less fortunate fellow-citizens were fast being taxed to death for the support of a benevolent bureaucracy.[3]

Summarily flooding an economy with money inevitably brings the forces of inflation to bear, and before long soldiers and civilians were again unable to afford the staples of life due to rapidly escalating costs of living.

With a despotic tax ministry at work and having observed a brief respite from soaring prices, the return of rampant inflation must undoubtedly have frustrated and confused Diocletian. He turned to the last realm of free and voluntary discourse: the markets.

It's true that Krugman doesn't "defend" Diocletian's economic policies; those advocated by him match Diocletian's almost precisely.

The subsequent attempt to control prices was the most sweeping in Rome's history, but not the first: two centuries earlier, Gracchus issued the Lex Sempronia Frumentaria, which imposed a below-market price on grain designated for public consumption. Diocletian's initiative came in the form of his Edict on Maximum Prices (Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium), published and promulgated in 301CE.

It was most ambitious, setting price ceilings for over 900 commodities, 130 labor wages, and freight charges and published broadly throughout the empire in both Greek and Latin. In addition, the preamble of the edict informs a demagogic armamentarium that continues to serve politicians to this day. It begins by appealing to divine selection and militarism, evoking the indispensability of the empire:

We may thank the good fortune of our state, as well as the immortal gods, on remembering the wars we have waged successfully … [and] by supernatural forces' benevolent support … will secure [economic stability] … with the reinforcements Justice deserves.

It continues by appealing to plebian envy ("Greed raves and burns and sets no limit on itself … in ripping up the fortunes of all."), rising to a crescendo of inflammatory class warfare (the wealthy "wallow in the greatest riches, with which nations could have been satisfied … day after day … carry[ing] off so much [that] they don't even know [what] they have!"), and ultimately offering sating promises for swift retribution ("Toward remedies, therefore … we spring into action. We care not for complaints.").

It goes on to characterize aspects of business as incomprehensible, conflating complexity with deception ("[T]he human tongue's reckoning cannot untangle … all the accounting and the deed[s.]"), threatens speculators ("Nor will he be … exempt from injury … the sort who supposes that he [will] hold back necessary kinds of food or service when he has them … the punishment ought to be even more serious for someone who initiates a scarcity") and generally excoriates the price system: "[s]ome people … are [so] eager to turn a profit … [that] they seize the abundance of general prosperity and strangle it."

While it is true that there was an economic crisis afoot, it is likely that Diocletian was much less interested in protecting the common Roman citizen than he was in maintaining the readiness and favor of his last line of defense: the military. "[A]n inspection of the items [listed in the] edict … reveal[s] that a majority of the maximum prices ordered refer to articles that enter largely into military stores." Soldiers may have already been rebelling against the inflationary prices and confiscating food from civilians, as the 6th century writings of Malalas report that at around this time "warehouses for the storage of grain [were established] … so that no retailer should be cheated by the soldiery."

Not long after the edict was published, and despite explicit prohibitions against hoarding, shops began to close and goods began to disappear from Roman markets. Civil disturbances over the availability of food broke out. With mints continuing to churn out tidal waves of coins and the infrastructural work continuing unabated, the edict led to more social upheaval:

For merest trifles, blood was shed and, out of fear, nothing was offered for sale and the scarcity grew much worse until, after the death of many persons, the [Edict on Maximum Prices] was repealed.[4]

If the edict is revealing, the academic criticism that follows it is equally so. One scholar blames the failure of the edict on its incompleteness; whether the historian believes that the list should have included even more prices or more draconian efforts should have been used to catch and execute incorrigibles (or both) is left to the reader's mind.

But there is a difference between rescinding a law and not enforcing it, and the regulatory burden of the edict seems to have survived, albeit unenforced, in some places:

The government continued to demand declarations of prices from the corporation of dealers in various commodities for decades afterward … [some research] show[s] that the practice continued at least as late as 359. Moreover a group of fifth-century papyri show that the data from these declarations were at that time still compiled at the provincial level.Download PDF

Whatever the case, the Romans learned a lesson that wouldn't be repeated again for almost 1600 years: that attempting to control inflation through price controls is like attempting to control obesity by wearing tight clothing: the results are generally frustrating, often painful, and sometimes deeply embarrassing.

To Krugman, again: while it is true that he has not, as yet, advocated for a capping of consumer or capital-goods prices, he has vociferously defended the existence of central banks and endorsed their mission to set the price of money via interest-rate targeting, which is tantamount to fixing prices across the entire economy in a singular monetary contrivance.

We may also view the impact of Diocletian's reforms in the rise of a new but deeply significant feature in the lives of the Roman people: walls. They reflect not only new architectural sensibilities but social and economic concerns as well. Archeologically, it is at around the time of the continuing economic crisis and the publication of the Edict on Maximum Prices that walls — higher, thicker, and more plentiful than before — begin to appear, crisscrossing civilian neighborhoods. To no small extent, this reflects the breakdown of civility, the disengagement from economic life, and the reaction to the systematic replacement of moral law by state-imposed codes and regulations.

Despite the failure of his attempt to impose a command economy, Diocletian retired peacefully to an estate after over two decades of rule. The political zeitgeist of intervention and coercion was alive when he took office but under him it grew and evolved far beyond attempting to influence the availability of comestibles or reducing the freedom of Roman citizens to negotiate prices: Diocletian's "attempt … resulted in complete regimentation under a totalitarian state." Over subsequent decades, despite the limited currency reforms of Constantine, taxes were incrementally increased and the vague semblance of private enterprise progressively crushed.

Compared alongside American political icons, Diocletian seems the ur–Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Immersed from the very start of his reign in exigent economic circumstances, and forced to choose between the constrictive moorings of repression and the dangerous, expansive seas of greater liberty, he doubled down on power, attempting to annul the relationship between supply and demand and reduce the gregarious, enterprising spirit of man to points on a graph or constants in an equation.

It is certifiably true that Krugman doesn't "defend" Diocletian's economic policies; rather, those advocated by him match those tried by Diocletian almost precisely. The Nobel Prize economist calls vociferously for higher taxes, which was a specific policy objective of the Roman emperor. He goads policy makers to create more money and target higher levels of inflation — which Diocletian did, with clearly adverse outcomes. Diocletian's massive buildup in both state-funded construction projects and a broadened state officialdom correspond neatly with Krugman's specification of greatly amplified state-employment initiatives.

But the inept tax, inflation, and price-fixing approaches of Roman emperors can, in part, be excused by virtue of their having had little history to consult alongside a limited number of economic theories, all of which were grounded in pantheistic theology. With 2,000 years of recorded history between the 3rd-century calamities of the Roman Empire and the present day — plus a handful of recent, well-documented economic crackups perusable amid a wide range of discredited economic theories — what excuses can Krugman offer?

References

Mitchell, H. 1947. "The Edict on Diocletian: A Study of Price Fixing in the Roman Empire." In The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, Vol. 13, No. 1.

Adams, Colin E. P. [2007] 2010. "Bureaucracy and Power in Diocletian's Egypt." In Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth International Congress of Papyrology. Ann Arbor: American Studies in Papyrology.

Allen, Robert C. 2007. "How Prosperous Were the Romans? Evidence from Diocletian's Price Edict." Working Paper 363. Department of Economics, Oxford University.

Van Sickle, C.E. 1930. "Public Works of Africa in the Reign of Diocletian." In Classical Philology, Vol. 25, No 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hubbard, Arthur J. 1913. The Fate of Empires: Being an Inquiry into the Stability of Civilization. London: Longhams, Green and Co.

Gibbons, Edward. 1777. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London: Lackington, Alley & Co.

University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register. 1920. University of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia.

Haskell, H. J. 1939. The New Deal in Old Rome: How Government in the Ancient World Tried to Deal with Modern Problems. New York: Alfred K. Knopf.

Notes

[1] Lawrence W. Reed, "'Gladiator' Should Remind Us of Lessons from Ancient Rome," Mackinac.org.

[2] Van Sickle, C.E. 1930. "Public Works of Africa in the Reign of Diocletian." In Classical Philology, Vol. 25, No 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[3] A.W. Ferrin, "The High Cost of Living," Moody's, volume 14, number 5 (October 1912), p. 347.

[4] H.J. Haskell, The New Deal in Old Rome, p. 220.


Fuente:

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
Diplomado en "Responsabilidad Social Empresarial" de la ONU
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Friday, June 01, 2012

Liberty in Aquarius?

Liberty in Aquarius?

Mises Daily:Friday, June 01, 2012 by

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While "New Age" can stand for a great variety of heterogeneous movements and worldviews, there are general features characterizing its followers, apart from clothing and food habits: a conviction of being part of a new planetary force that will contribute to or witness a spiritual transformation of humanity — taking a qualitative quantum leap to higher consciousness. Although many of the invoked spiritual beliefs and practices stem from ancient and geographically diverse origins, the New Age movement appears as a mass phenomenon only after the Second World War, or more exactly, in the wake of the "hippie" movement and the student revolutions of the 1960s, and is now present almost everywhere in popular culture and among the intelligentsia.

Apart from sporadic mentions (including in the works of Murray N. Rothbard), libertarian writers seem to have paid little attention to New Age philosophies. This may originate in the perception that spirituality involves matters (until now) not unanimously observable and objectively quantifiable. The libertarian position rests on the nonaggression principle against nonaggressors, which in turn builds on a clear definition of property rights. It remains however unclear whether spiritual matters like "aura," "vibrations," or "energy" are even scarce resources. As long as all behavior under the banner of New Age remains voluntary, it represents "capitalistic acts between consenting adults" (even without the necessity of chapters on "The Sex Guru," "The Channeling Medium," or "The Aura Healer" in a future sequel to Walter Block's Defending the Undefendable).

However, since the New Age literature includes thoughts on the state and on economic matters, it seems justifiable to examine the latter from an Austro-libertarian standpoint. In the following, we will quote spiritual "authorities" on those matters. Due to limitations of space, only a small number of New Age "thinkers" will be considered. The selection does not claim to be representative for the totality of New Age thought. There is no statistical data available for such decisions to be based upon, even if, for example, several worldly or esoteric publications compile ranking lists (like the Watkins Review's list of the 100 most spiritually influential living people). On the other hand, statistical representativeness is probably not a good measure for matters spiritual. After extensive reading of New Age literature as well as numerous conversations with individuals considering themselves as part of the New Age movement, the following commonalities of thought and opinion can be formulated as descriptive for most New Age philosophers: preferences for communal over private property, consumption over thrift, intuition over rationality, nature over technology, and the commune over the family; favorable views of world government; abolition of money; renouncement of the ego and greed; antirational thought; a new class theory and high time preference ("here and now!").

While declaredly nonpolitical, in terms of political organization many spiritual teachers seem to prefer some form of world government. Indian guru Osho (1931–1990, known also as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) was one of them:

To make it [the United Nations] a success, the simple thing is to make it a World Government. All nations should surrender their armies, their arms, to the World Government. Certainly if there is only one government, neither armies are needed nor arms. With whom are you going to have a war?

Now each big country, each power, is loaded with nuclear weapons, so much so that if we want to, we can destroy seventy earths like this, right now.…

Politicians are basically, deep down, impotent — hence the urge to power.…

And the power is in such people's hands. Any crackpot can push a button and finish the whole of humanity — the whole of life on earth.…

Each prime minister of the existing countries will become a member of the World Government, and all the prime ministers of the countries which join into one World Government will continue to work functionally. They won't have any real power, because the question of anyone invading anyone else does not arise. They will simply run the railways and post offices, etc., of their countries.

There is a possibility that a few governments won't join the World Government; then they have to be boycotted completely as if they don't exist. There should be no relationship with them, no communication, because that is the only way to bring them to join. And they cannot stand against the World Government. They will have to surrender. It is better to surrender gracefully. And then they will have their government, they will have their internal guards, a national force which can manage internal affairs, but they will not have plants making nuclear weapons and millions of people engaged in the unnecessary exercise of killing man.

The members of the World Government will choose the world president. But the world president will be chosen not from the members of the World Government, but from outside. And one thing should be absolutely certain about him — that he is not a politician. He can be a poet, a painter, a mystic, a dancer, but not a politician. Anything except that. So in this way we will destroy the political power which has been the whole torture in the past.

The way the U.N. is now, with a few countries having veto power, should be dissolved.

It is again a power trip, and this has been the cause of many troubles: one single government can veto something for the whole world. Instead, each president from different nations will have voting power according to the nation's population of matriculates, of high school graduates.

This will change the whole power structure in the world. Then details can be worked out very easily.

While some of the sentences about politics may ring true to libertarians, this passage abounds of logical inconsistencies. Would a world government really have no use of its weapons? However, this may be compatible with a position that defies logical thought:

Question: Why are you so much against logic?

Osho: Because it is logical to be against logic. Logic proves nothing, that's why I am against logic. It only pretends to prove; it proves nothing. It is an empty game, verbal. But the pretension is such that millions of people are befooled by it, and down the ages we have been trained for logic, so it has appeal. But logic has never proved anything. Proof comes only through experience, never through logic.

This empiricist position, together with a denial of universal principles, may lead to the following statements (in 1989!):

I love the Soviet Union because it is a great experiment. It is a milestone in the history of man. Of course it is only half, but still — half is better than nothing. The other half can be raised on top of it.

What Lenin and Stalin have produced has given a good foundation for anybody to raise the temple of consciousness. And this temple will not belong to any religion; it will belong to all individuals who want to enter into initiation, who want to enter on the path.…

It looks very cruel, inhuman. But it was Joseph Stalin who managed the Soviet Union, because it was confronting on enemies two sides. Enemies from within … the Russian Orthodox Church, the intellectuals, the people who did not want to share their property — even the poor masses. As I told you, a man who has only two hens will not share — that's all he has. The masses are the greatest enemy of their own welfare. So you will be surprised to know that one million Russians were killed by Joseph Stalin, and these were not the rich people. These were the poor people who were adamant, stubborn.

Without Joseph Stalin, communism would not have succeeded — although it succeeded out of violence, murder, massacre. First he had to finish all the enemies inside the country, and then he had to make an iron wall around the Soviet Union, because the whole world was against him. All the capitalist countries were against him, against communism, because if communism succeeds in one country it is going to succeed in every country. It is better to kill it in the beginning, because soon it will be gaining more and more strength and it will become impossible to stop it.

The whole credit for protecting the Soviet Union and communism goes to Joseph Stalin. But of course he had to use murder, no trials in the courts, no wastage of time. He had not much time to waste in fighting in the courts. Simply finishing people immediately, just on a suspicion.…

It used to be said, and is still said in every capitalist country, that "You cannot kill one innocent man, even if you have to leave ninety-nine criminals just to save one innocent man." Joseph Stalin turned the whole thing upside down. He said, "You cannot leave one criminal, even if you have to kill ninety-nine innocent men.

So it is not a question of individuals, it is not a question of innocence, it is a question of saving communism at any cost.

Another spiritual authority was Jiddu Krishnamurti(1895–1986), who in his book Education and the Significance of Life writes, "We have to create a world government which is radically different, which is not based on nationalism, on ideologies, or force" (p. 57).

Generally speaking, even if New Age figures may make statements in favor of some politicians (like Deepak Chopra, currently fifth on the Watkins Review's list, who fundraises for Obama), it seems that most of them do not focus on politics and the institution of the state directly. Instead, the latter's actions are perceived to be the results of humanity's collective consciousness, which can be improved only through spiritual practice of various kinds by the greatest possible number of individuals. Sending "positive" energy or vibrations to world leaders and thereby to have a peacemaking influence seems to be the method of choice — not overtly opposing government abuse, which from a spiritual perspective would only reinforce the present "negativity." There seems little understanding of the inherent dangers and the immorality of the state's monopolies of taxation and jurisdiction. As in Marxian ideology, the institution of the state is expected to be dissolved or transformed through a universal dialectic process.

On economics, New Age authorities seem to adopt a now-conventional position of a social-market economy or of moderate interventionism. Deepak Chopra, for example, promotes a "just" capitalism:

A society marked by repression and rigid authority — which is the general political picture in China — can enforce economic growth, but that's not America. Likewise, a completely unfettered free market of the kind that existed in the robber baron era, can generate profits galore, but that's not America, either. We decided long ago that people deserve dignity, a healthy workplace, a clean environment, and lack of ruthless exploitation by owners and bosses.

Many spiritual leaders favor a voluntary reduction of consumer behavior and teach detachment from material things. An ideal lifestyle for some would be that of a man who leaves no traces behind him — like a "bird in the open sky." Economically speaking, it reflects a preference of consumption ("here and now") over saving ("hoarding"), and its result, if consequently applied, would be less capital investment or even capital consumption. However, only a few New Age leaders are outspoken critics of capitalism and the market economy — probably also due to the fact that a considerable part of their followers are from among the wealthy.

There seems to be a consensus among spiritual teachers that greed and "money" caused the current economic crises, as the 14th Dalai Lama (currently second on the Watkins Review's list) explains in an interview with Business Week:

I'm telling people, including some businessmen who are my friends, what this global economic crisis was caused by too much greed, speculation, and hypocrisy — not being transparent. These are the moral and ethical issues.

According to Buddhism, these things happen due to their own causes and conditions. Through years or through decades this present crisis developed. All the causes and conditions were fully ripe. No force could stop it. It's the natural law. So you accept it.

While Austrian economists would readily subscribe to the fact that economic crises are "somehow" related to "greed and money," New Age teachers and their followers rarely show a more profound understanding of the underlying economic mechanisms. Their statements often remain on such a general level that readers may easily find confirmations for them (this may be a strategy similar to that producing the "Barnum effect" in astrology). In the following excerpt, Eckhart Tolle explains how "the present moment can heal the world economy":

We know that ego is the source of the Pain Body — that part of our consciousness that moves toward pleasure and rejects pain. We also know that attachment causes us to care more about things than qualities like Love, Compassion, and Loving Kindness.…

Every country in the world wants growth every year. That is like saying what goes up most never come down. Every politician and statesman is looking for ways to boost GDP to higher and higher levels. But what would happen if we had economic equanimity? What if President Obama as the head of the world's strongest economy began to talk about inner peace instead of economic growth at any cost? Did making more money ever bring anyone you know permanent happiness?

We're not talking about accepting less. We're talking about accepting. Part of living in harmony with the Universe is accepting its physical laws which include the economic cycles of nations. Regardless of the recklessness of banks and stock traders, the Universe cannot sustain continuous expansion. Even the Big Bang, which states that the Universe is constantly expanding, also says that in that expansion the Universe will cool down until all the stars burn out. The Universe will continue to get larger, but it will be a cold, lifeless, and Universe bereft of planets and suns.

This too is what could happen to countries obsessed with positive economic growth. The hapless search for profit at any cost bankrupts our values and quality of life.

Returning to the Present Moment shows us where our real wealth is. And that wealth does not derive from new trade agreements; it comes from the Power of Silence inside every moment; it comes from the infinity between each though; it comes from the heart when it is open and undefended.

A recurring theme in literature on positive thinking is a supposed material superabundance. Instead of having a central warehouse as socialists like Fourier described in their collectivist utopias, some New Age thinkers assume the existence of a universal warehouse, which by inextinguishable supply provides for all material wants — by spiritual mail order so to speak. This may be achieved by the means of visualizations and positive affirmations. In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises warns of the consequences of similar wishful thinking:

Such is the myth of potential plenty and abundance. Economics may leave it to the historians and psychologists to explain the popularity of this kind of wishful thinking and indulgence in daydreams. All that economics has to say about such idle talk is that economics deals with the problems man has to face on account of the fact that his life is conditioned by natural factors. It deals with action, i.e., with the conscious endeavors to remove as far as possible felt uneasiness. It has nothing to assert with regard to the state of affairs in an unrealizable and for human reason even inconceivable universe of unlimited opportunities. In such a world, it may be admitted, there will be no law of value, no scarcity, and no economic problems. These things will be absent because there will be no choices to be made, no action, and no tasks to be solved by reason. Beings which would have thrived in such a world would never have developed reasoning and thinking. If ever such a world were to be given to the descendants of the human race, these blessed beings would see their power to think wither away and would cease to be human. For the primary task of reason is to cope consciously with the limitations imposed upon man by nature, is to fight against scarcity. Acting and thinking man is the product of a universe of scarcity in which whatever well-being can be attained is the prize of toil and trouble, of conduct popularly called economic.

An extreme form of negating scarcity is a movement called breatharianism, which promotes "pranic" nourishment, that is nourishment by sunlight alone. Although its spiritual leader Jasmuheen (Australian-born Ellen Greve) failed to demonstrate her ability in an experiment for the Australian TV program 60 Minutes (excerpts are available on YouTube), there are cases where followers eventually starved themselves to death. In the hundred-page Global Harmonization Program from Jasmuheen's Embassy of Peace the word "economics" does not appear once, at the same time as the "embassy's" programs are supposed to have the "power to … help create a more balanced economic model that because of its altruistic and educational focus, will attract powerful forces of interdimensional support."Download PDF

The Global Sufficiency Network "provides the practical tools needed to move away from the mindset of scarcity that fuels so many of our societal ills and into a new, more harmonious and sustainable way of life on the planet we all call home."

Can New Age "thought" be reconciled with a libertarian position? Since New Age thought does not contradict in principle the nonaggression axiom — on the contrary, peace and harmony representing its core values — there should be sufficient common ground for dialogue. However, rejection of formal, aprioristic logic in favor of "intuition" or empirical reasoning can make it difficult to sensitize New Age followers to the implications of the state's existence and the shortcomings of interventionism.

Since Taoist philosophy — and Asian culture in general — has been inspirational for several New Age movements, Murray Rothbard's article "The Ancient Chinese Libertarian Tradition" may resonate with New Age followers. Rothbard traces the roots of libertarianism to Chinese Taoist philosophers, for whom

Government, in sum, must be limited to the smallest possible minimum; "inaction" was the proper function of government, since only inaction can permit the individual to flourish and achieve happiness. Any intervention by government, Lao-tzu declared, would be counterproductive, and would lead to confusion and turmoil. After referring to the common experience of mankind with government, Lao-tzu came to this incisive conclusion: "The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished…. The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be."

Even if New Agers do not acknowledge it, the market economy made much of the current New Age movement possible. Capital accumulation and economic growth allowed for time and resources to be freed up to be used for "spiritual" purposes. The appearance of spiritual professions — like aura healers, meditation coaches, or mediums supposedly channeling angels or other spirits — are just a consequence of the division of labor under the present (relatively) capitalistic conditions.

This article can only serve as a very superficial account of New Age economic and political thought, which would need to be continued by more extended research. Reasonable objections may be made about the selected authors and whether they represent the "real" New Age movement or not. Many spiritual leaders propose global solutions that cannot be falsified by aprioristic reasoning since they apply to energetic or spiritual phenomena. However, some of their statements regarding human action do not stand the rigors of formal logic and may lead to catastrophic consequences. Since New Age ideologies are influential in public life and the media, and are among others often linked to agendas of world government and environmentalism, their discussion from an Austro-libertarian standpoint is necessary to expose potentially dangerous fallacies.

Fuente:

Saludos
Rodrigo González Fernández
Diplomado en "Responsabilidad Social Empresarial" de la ONU
Diplomado en "Gestión del Conocimiento" de la ONU
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