In highlighting the video below as part of his latest Ideas Matter update, Max Borders wants to substitute a new title for “Socialism is force.”
The state is force. That’s a better title for this video, in my view. People sometimes get locked in dualities like capitalism versus socialism. But as Friedman suggests, fascism — crony capitalism by whatever degree — is always waiting in the wings. We should start to think of any question about the role of government as a question about the extent to which we are prepared to accept the use of force against us. And we should be prepared for a world in which powerful special interests are able to bid for state power as long as it works in their favor. It’s the winners and losers state.
So can the state be constrained? Is there any state actor than cannot be bid away? Is there any government that will not grow beyond even some minimal prescription of its role — say, by a constitution?
I used to think if we just had the right kind of constitution, the checks and balances would be sufficient, the constitutional limits maintained. But it’s not a question of creating a more ideal document. I go back and look at the U.S. Constitution and consider the ways in which it’s been eroded, abandoned or forgotten. If U.S. leaders were to respect the Constitution over the illiberal statute factories we see today, 90 percent of what the national government does would be done by states or not at all. We would at least have 50 laboratories. And lots of foot voting.
