Drop by the John Locke Foundation at noon today for this week’s Shaftesbury Society meeting, where I’ll be discussing the continuing relevance of Thomas Sowell’s 1987 masterpiece A Conflict of Visions. If you’re not aware of Sowell’s formulation of constrained and unconstrained visions of political thought, perhaps a couple of recent opinion columns will help frame the talk.
First, my friend and former colleague Ben Boychuk (who worked with me at two newspapers in California) wrote this column for the Sacramento Bee on how the recent scandals surrounding the Obama administration delegitimize modern government. Ben couches his column in terms of Sowell’s constrained vision, which views large, centrally planned government institutions skeptically, arguing (as did F.A. Hayek) that government planners cannot have enough knowledge to craft programs that satisfy the infinitely diverse preferences of individuals. Ben cites President Obama’s recent commencement speech at Ohio State University:
“You should reject these voices,” the president continued. “Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.”
Who is this “we” about whom the president speaks? Is it the elected official or the career bureaucrat? Of course they can’t be trusted. They prove it every day, and again this week.
And although our “experiment in self-rule” isn’t necessarily a sham, Obama’s airy description surely is. Self-rule doesn’t mean filling out umpteen forms for Obamacare, or letting a federal bureaucrat dictate how you can use your private property, or acceding to thousands upon thousands of incomprehensible rules and regulations, or getting another pat down at the airport. The proper word for that isn’t self-rule, but subservience.
Americans don’t need the Kochs or [Grover] Norquist or other such hobgoblins to convince them of the mendacious incompetence – or incompetent mendacity – of their government. Please. Government is doing a fine job delegitimizing itself at every level.
True legitimacy requires the consent of the governed. Every time a county sheriff rousts a kid from her roadside lemonade stand for want of a business license or a health inspector’s permit, government delegitimizes itself.
Meantime, Froma Harrop, who writes a nationally syndicated column for Creators Syndicate, recently weighed in on the debate over health care reform. She noted that a preferred reform pushed by conservatives has its merits.
[L]et’s put in a few good words for catastrophic coverage — and its cousin, the health savings account. An HSA marries a high deductible (paid before insurance starts picking up the big bills) to a tax-favored savings account from which people can tap money for smaller medical expenses.
What we most fear are medical “catastrophes” leading to bankruptcy or the inability to afford appropriate care. This kind of coverage protects against financial traumas. Meanwhile, asking consumers to dig into their pockets for routine care makes them more careful about spending.
Here’s the problem: You and I may nod in agreement over the merits of catastrophic coverage. We are informed, and our financial lives are organized. We make it our business to save for retirement. We budget for unforeseen expenses. We know not to rack up big balances on our credit cards.
The problem, she says — reflecting Sowell’s unconstrained vision — is that most people aren’t smart enough to make those decisions wisely.
Consumer-driven health care is still fee-for-service. Patients are the ones to decide when they are being sold too much or too expensive medicine. But how many of us can second-guess our doctor on what treatment we should have?
Doing so may be wise, or it may be dangerous. Thing is, average, or even above-average, Americans probably don’t know which.
One major disagreement between the visions is the role of knowledge: Is it top-down, articulated by experts who know best, or is it bottom-up, derived from the collective wisdom of countless individuals over time?
We’ll talk about this and much more (including the weekly protests at the General Assembly) at noon. Come on down!
