Chip Taylor

More on the new era of big government

Over at Tech Central Station, Arnold Kling discusses the argument that advocates of smaller government have won and the two that we are losing.

The last 25 years have seen an intellectual victory by the Right over the Left on the topic of central planning. It was commonplace in the 1950's and 1960's to assert that the market economy was too chaotic, so that it needs the guiding hand of intelligent government bureaucrats. That view has dissipated, at least in the United States. Thus, conservatives might be lulled into thinking that we have beaten back the argument for big government.

However, the Left has not gone away. It has mutated, and as Sebastian Mallaby suggests, those of us who advocate small government may very well be losing. What I will argue later in this essay is that the Left is using two weapons effectively:

(a) Corruption -- making the case that there is evil carried out by corporate officials and Republicans, and only the righteous crusading of the Left can bring the villains to justice; and

(b) Compassion -- making the case that large groups in society are victims who require and deserve government assistance

Read the whole thing, as they say.