Americans seem to have an overwhelming desire to believe that government is the answer, regardless of the question. But given that this belief is untenable to anyone paying even cursory attention to reality, they evade rather than face that reality by constantly looking for the “if only” that might square the circle-if only we could find the candidate who would not be corrupted by the inherent incentives toward abuse in government or some gimmick that would magically generate good government despite those incentives.

The Supreme Court decision on March 6th in the case of Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR) should be a lesson to libertarian supporters of government-funded school vouchers. The Court ruled that colleges and universities that accept federal funding cannot bar military recruiters from their campuses. I believe the old saying is: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” Government-funded vouchers will certainly increase federal control over the private schools that accept them.

[The following is the English translation of a critical comment on Gerard Radnitzky’s article “Das Moralische Problem der Politik, Erwaegen, Wissen, Ethik, 2002, Heft 3, pp. 345-358; my comment appeared originally at the same place on pp. 378-380.]

Not surprisingly, I have no quarrels with Gerard Radnitzky’s criticism of the state or his sympathy for the idea of an “ordered anarchy.” Indeed, I have expressed similar sentiments and ideas, and for many years Radnitzky and I have been friendly allied intellectual combatants.

There is a bias to over-emphasize short-run, visible benefits in politics, often to the exclusion of what Frederic Bastiat termed the unseen effects on others and in the long run, because a politicians’ primary success requirement is to get elected long before all the consequences of their policies become obvious. T