Human Possibility Versus Political Possibility
15 July 2006
The Editor, New Yorker
To the Editor:
George Packer classifies Bill Buckley's and George Will's skepticism of U.S. military operations in Iraq as an instance of "their creed's more cramped vision of human possibility" ("Fighting Faiths," July 10 & 17). Mr. Packer mistakes skepticism of social engineering for skepticism of human possibility.
Those of us who want to shrink the role of government in order to expand the scope of individual freedom believe that truly creative human energy is released only when people are sufficiently free from government regulations and taxation. Such freedom is prerequisite for any prosperous and dynamic civilization - such as ours that conquers hunger, builds skyscrapers, flies us routinely across vast oceans in thin metal tubes, and daily allows us to talk in real time to friends and loved ones thousands of miles away.
Drenched with its magnificence, how can we deny the reality of human possibility? What we deny is the reality of politician possibility.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, New Yorker
To the Editor:
George Packer classifies Bill Buckley's and George Will's skepticism of U.S. military operations in Iraq as an instance of "their creed's more cramped vision of human possibility" ("Fighting Faiths," July 10 & 17). Mr. Packer mistakes skepticism of social engineering for skepticism of human possibility.
Those of us who want to shrink the role of government in order to expand the scope of individual freedom believe that truly creative human energy is released only when people are sufficiently free from government regulations and taxation. Such freedom is prerequisite for any prosperous and dynamic civilization - such as ours that conquers hunger, builds skyscrapers, flies us routinely across vast oceans in thin metal tubes, and daily allows us to talk in real time to friends and loved ones thousands of miles away.
Drenched with its magnificence, how can we deny the reality of human possibility? What we deny is the reality of politician possibility.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 11:13am