The benefits of a system of old-age security without the state would be more than economic. It would also foster the acquisition of personal virtues and responsibility, which would then be reflected in other spheres of private and social life. A non-governmental system would even treat the least fortunate members of the society with more humanity and dignity, and there would be fewer such people overall.
I had a enlightening exchange with an international economics professor recently about Marxist dogmas inserted into neoclassical economics.
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of 24 comic books created by Belgian comic writer and artist Georges Remi (1907–1983), better known as Hergé.
But even more damaging to the case for state-mandated preservation is the fact that the most egregious destroyers of treasures from our past have not been market actors seeking profit, but states pursuing power, engaging in wars, urban renewal projects, and eminent domain seizures of long-established and beloved neighborhoods for highways, airports, sports stadiums, and commercial developments promising higher tax revenues.
That's true enough but it sidesteps the reality that there is no economic activity that these people don't favor regulating to the nth degree. They talk of privacy and civil rights, but when it comes to commerce, they recognize no right of privacy and no individual rights. All property is up for grabs to control and meld in the name of national well-being.
Judge Posner, rather than recognize this and the threat it poses to life and liberty, instead mongers fear and urges us to cede more power to government over highly speculative possibilities, all the while dismissing civil libertarians as "ignorant."
Thus, we are left with the prospect of Congress forcing us to use less fossil-based fuels (which are cost-effective and efficient) and replace those fuels with government-approved fuels, which are prohibitively expensive and inefficient.
