With his usual sagacity, Sheldon Richman evaluates Obama’s high-flying rhetoric in his column today. The main problem, he observes, is that no matter how glorious the speeches, words are trumped by reality. There are limits imposed by scarcity. There are consequences to tampering with economic laws.
I’m reminded of Thomas Sowell’s distinction between people who have the “constrained vision” and those who have the “unconstrained vision.” The former recognizes that trade-offs are inevitable while the latter ignores that fact.
Richman observes that there are many good things government cannot do directly, but if it permits the market and civil society to work, it can help to occur indirectly. Lately, we have seen some good examples of the shambles that result when the government tries to bring about good results through direct action. One is the “affordable housing” disaster. Had the government tried to indirectly help poorer people improve their housing, it could have eased licensing laws, cut red tape, gotten rid of numerous impediments to inner-city capitalism. That would have allowed residents to earn more and then they would have spent their increasing wealth on better housing (not necessarily owned homes, though) or whatever else they regarded as most important. BUT NO. The foolish politicians thought they could directly accomplish what they thought was a politically cool objective with coercion and cheap money. OOPS! But of course they never admit any mistakes.
