Flawed as we are and with limited knowledge about the world and ourselves, we might not know what is objectively “best for us long term.” Government planners know even less.
Across so many fields, from money to nutrition, I’ve found that the corollary to the government-heavy approach is a desire not to make choices for oneself.
The knowledge of government planners is much overrated. Instead, we must "trust no man beyond his infinitesimal area of competence; hold him to the very little he knows."
Further, if solidarity is a value, why can’t the common enterprise be that people in a society share a commitment to the free market? Or is solidarity only good when people jointly do things socialists like?
In the fall of 2016, I was a left communist. As any Marxist can tell you, ideology can blind one to the insights that might disrupt one’s political adhesions. Only it was Marxist ideology itself that blinded me.
It's fairly easy to destroy the spontaneously created institutions and groups that make up a well-functioning society. But it is nearly impossible to rebuild them once they're destroyed by central planners.
Electing better planners won't make socialism work. Central planning fails because planning without the feedback mechanisms of the market is an impossible task.
Democrats want taxpayer funding for the families of those who died of covid. But, of course, there's no discussion of helping those who died as a result of covid lockdowns, such as those who were denied medical treatment for cancer.
