In an era of clueless voters and profoundly dishonest candidates, cynicism is one of the last best checks on political power run amok. Regardless of the final vote count in Tuesday’s midterm congressional elections, both Republicans and Democrats have earned all the distrust they will reap.
America has a deadly addiction to war. Since 1950, presidents of both political parties have sent American troops into conflicts across the globe, killed countless people, sacrificed the lives and limbs of American servicemen and women, and wasted trillions of dollars. Yet these wars have consistently failed to achieve the objectives proclaimed when the killing began.
According to a practitioner of behavioral economics, Vernon Smith, an individual’s emotional state rather than reason is the driving factor in influencing one’s choices. He writes,
I was in the emergency area of a local hospital recently and had just taken a CT scan to see if I had suffered a stroke. A neurologist I met for the first time came into my room and told me the CT results were negative but an MRI would provide more information. One of my daughters is a doctor in another state and in an earlier phone conversation strongly recommended an MRI, as did her twin sister who works with doctors. An MRI would mean I would be put on a list, and that might mean an overnight stay, the thought of which I dreaded.
“More than any other single period, World War I was the critical watershed for the American business system.”
—Murray N. Rothbard
