When Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency in 1980, many conservatives (myself among them) were euphoric. They expected a wholesale reform in American government; there was even talk of a “Reagan Revolution.” It seemed likely that there would be an early campaign to repeal the Great Society programs Reagan had always opposed, and, once that was accomplished, a repeal of the New Deal itself.
This summer was not the first time that public funds have been used to underwrite sacrilegious and pornographic art, but the outcry was significantly louder than before. Nevertheless, the House rejected attempts by California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher to kill the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Texas Rep. Dick Armey to reduce the NEA’s budget by 10%. Instead, the House agreed to cut a token $45,000, the amount granted to the two exhibits that inflamed public anger against the NEA.
The belief in over-population is an ancient one. The leaders of the French Revolution were convinced that there were too many Frenchmen, and that an ideal France necessitated the elimination of many people. The myth of over-population did not originate with them. It is an ancient belief of statist man.
But ancient or modern, the myth has some basic premises.
American agricultural policy offers many instructive lessons on how to cripple a major sector of the economy. For 60 years, the U.S. government has waged a war against the market. And for 60 years, American taxpayers and consumers have been the biggest losers.
The pace of change in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is so brisk that it is risky to write anything about it. Nevertheless, the virtual dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of liberalization in East Germany are exhilarating news, the climax of months of historic developments.
The banking dilemma seems eternal, like the monetary dilemma, the tax dilemma, and the marital dilemma. The essence of the banking dilemma, however, is that the depositors’ money is not in the vault awaiting the depositors’ decision to withdraw it. Instead it is out on loan or invested in the money market or in mortgage-backed securities.
It is generally agreed, both inside and outside Eastern Europe, that the only cure for their intensifying and grinding poverty is to abandon socialism and central planning, and to adopt private property rights and a free-market economy. But a critical problem is that Western conventional wisdom counsels going slowly, “phasing-in” freedom, rather than taking the always-reviled path of radical and comprehensive social change.
