Posted by
Boris Tiraspolsky on Monday, October 06, 2008 6:00:55 AM
[Adam] Smith... explains that politicians cannot promote a country’s welfare as we might imagine. Attempts to intervene in the market are hazardous at best. “The statesman,” wrote Smith, “who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capital, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”
Political Blame and the Myth of Government-Sponsored Salvation
by J. R. Nyquist
It frightens me to hear politicians play the “blame game.” Those who blame others for national problems are attempting to focus the hatred of their listeners against a particular person. Most often the person targeted is already unpopular. It is therefore safe to lay everything at this person’s door, saying that
he is at fault, that
he should be punished, that a particular odium should attach to
his name. The salvation of the country, therefore, is promoted by vilification. Such is an absurd course which prepares the way for disastrous policies. At the moment we see that President Bush or Vice President Cheney are the scapegoats of the hour. When the Great Depression was underway, several decades ago, President Herbert Hoover was singled out for blame. In Germany the Nazis liked to blame the Jews, who are still blamed for the world’s ills by Islamic leaders. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin likes to blame the United States for the world’s economic problems, though the Kremlin has always embraced economic stupidity as a matter of state principle.
Continued...