In the science of human action, the effects of erroneous notions of the market process, most particularly as they pertain to policy-making decisions, are not to be underestimated. The economist can not remain indifferent to these in an era in which the appeals of interventionism and government expansion increasingly hold sway in the domain of public policy.
Each year at this time, schoolchildren all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.
It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving’s real meaning.
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article.
The latest boogeyman conjured up by the Biden administration is ghost guns.
In his September 26 executive order on “Combating Emerging Firearms Threats and Improving School-Based Active-Shooter Drills,” President Biden mentioned these ominous “ghost guns”:
The concept of the entrepreneurial state proposes that governments—like private enterprises—can take risks, innovate, and drive economic growth. Through direct intervention, governments can strategically invest in sectors that hold promise for the future, aiming to spark productivity and economic expansion. However, in countries like Jamaica, the limitations of the entrepreneurial state are evident, as interventions often face economic realities and public sentiment that clash with the expectations of the private sector.
“He really wouldn’t think he has built that gun, would he?”—Chief Justice John Roberts
[Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from Leggett’s article “Thanksgiving Day,” first published in 1836. Leggett was one of America’s leading Jacksonian free-market journalists in the mid-nineteenth century, and was a committed opponent of central banks, slavery, and corporatism. “The separation of bank and state” was a part of his political creed. In this article, Leggett, true to form, reminds his readers that they do not need either the federal government or the state governments to tell us on what days to be thankful.
When he returns to the White House early next year, President-elect Donald Trump plans to appoint Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. While not an official federal department, the Administration’s plans for DOGE are similar to the Grace Commission under Ronald Reagan and the “Reinventing Government,” or “REGO,” initiative under Bill Clinton.
