What My Colleague Dan Klein Calls 'The Peoples' Romance'
25 January 2009
Editor, Baltimore Sun
Dear Editor:
Dan Rodricks wants "national service," and he believes that the nation's current infatuation with Barack Obama provides an ideal opportunity to implement it ("Americans poised to heed Obama's call to service," January 25).
Put aside the mistaken premise that each of us "serves" only when working in government programs, and ask: how will Uncle Sam know how best to use all the conscripted labor at his disposal? And what earthly reason is there to suppose that he will deploy such labor according to reasonably objective criteria rather than according to political fads, partisan emotions, and interest-group influences?
Sadly, Mr. Rodricks utterly ignores practical questions such as these. His essay is evidence of the truth of what Thomas Sowell observes in his column appearing in today's Washington Times: "politics is about evoking emotions, not examining specifics."
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, Baltimore Sun
Dear Editor:
Dan Rodricks wants "national service," and he believes that the nation's current infatuation with Barack Obama provides an ideal opportunity to implement it ("Americans poised to heed Obama's call to service," January 25).
Put aside the mistaken premise that each of us "serves" only when working in government programs, and ask: how will Uncle Sam know how best to use all the conscripted labor at his disposal? And what earthly reason is there to suppose that he will deploy such labor according to reasonably objective criteria rather than according to political fads, partisan emotions, and interest-group influences?
Sadly, Mr. Rodricks utterly ignores practical questions such as these. His essay is evidence of the truth of what Thomas Sowell observes in his column appearing in today's Washington Times: "politics is about evoking emotions, not examining specifics."
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Sunday June 28, 2009 at 12:32pm