{"id":69598,"date":"2019-01-25T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69598"},"modified":"2019-01-26T15:38:32","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T22:38:32","slug":"ignorance-will-not-yield-bliss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/ignorance-will-not-yield-bliss.html","title":{"rendered":"Ignorance will not yield bliss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
St. Andrews, Scotland, is where the great conservative thinker Russell Kirk earned his doctorate and where I met the then and future Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, F. A. Hayek, George Stigler, James Buchanan, and other prominent conservative\/libertarian economists (including the colorful Murray Rothbard) in 1976. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If it continues, the leftward lurch of the Democratic Party will pose a real threat to the liberty of American citizens and to the constitutional order of the United States \u2014 as well as to their economic well being and the prosperity of people around the world. \u00a0Here are some recent thoughts on aspects of this remarkable phenomenon:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kulaks Must Be Liquidated as a Class:\u00a0Elizabeth Warren is not proposing a tax; she\u2019s proposing asset forfeiture.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cElizabeth Warren\u2019s \u2018Wealth Tax\u2019 Is Unconstitutional\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Social Justice\u2019 Is Unjust\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomics is haunted\u00a0by more fallacies than any other study known to man. \u00a0This is no accident. \u00a0The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine\u2014the special pleading of selfish interests.\u201d \u00a0(<\/strong>Henry Hazlitt [1894-1993])<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.\u201d \u00a0(Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Bastiat [1801-1850])<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.\u201d \u00a0(Milton Friedman [1912-2006])<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If I had my way, I would require successful completion of a very basic course in economics for graduation from American high schools.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barring that, I wish that everybody would read one or two very basic books on the subject. \u00a0There are several that I might recommend. \u00a0One of the very best and most effective of them would be Henry Hazlitt\u2019s little classic Economics in One Lesson<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another might be Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Bastiat\u2019s equally classic and very short book The Law<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I would love it if everybody were to read Capitalism and Freedom<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by the great Milton Friedman, with whom it was my great and surprising honor to spend a week at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland during the summer of 1976, shortly before he won that year\u2019s Nobel Prize<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a democracy, the combination of widespread economic illiteracy and the stoking of the flames of envy by quarter-educated and ambitious politicians has the potential of doing enormous damage. \u00a0In the United States of America, in particular, popular ignorance of the Constitution and indifference to its principles \u2014 and even, in some cases, hostility to it based on a contemptuous misreading of the intent of its Framers \u2014 is putting us at serious risk.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 If it continues, the leftward lurch of the Democratic Party will pose a real threat to the liberty of American citizens and to the constitutional order of the United States \u2014 as well as to their economic well being and the prosperity of people around the world. \u00a0Here are some recent thoughts on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2379,2917,2926,2929,2923,2920,2911,2914],"class_list":["post-69598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-democrats","tag-economics","tag-frederic-bastiat","tag-henry-hazlitt","tag-milton-friedman","tag-social-justice","tag-socialism","tag-socialist"],"yoast_head":"\nIgnorance will not yield bliss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    If it continues, the leftward lurch of the Democratic Party will 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