Economist Arnold Kling has a sharp eye for silly political blather and in this post, he takes on silly talk by Matt Yglesias. Yglesias makes the claims that the left stands for equality rather than hierarchy and that leftists are smarter than those of us on the right.
Writes Kling, “My 2010 book, the widely-unread Unchecked and Unbalanced argues against Yglesias. It says that the leftist approach to government creates inequality that far exceeds the inequality produced by the market. And it says that the power wielded by government officials far exceeds their intelligence. I suggest ways to break up the concentration of political power.”
Kling’s post (and a fortiori, his book) strongly supports his argument. The state power that the leftist cry is needed to offset the inequality that arises in a free society is inevitably used by authoritarians in ways that do tremendous damage to poor people as they try to improve their circumstances. Just to pick one glaring case, public education does far more harm to the children it purports to education than all the welfare state handouts that are trumpeted as needed to lessen the natural inequality arising in a free society.
Kling makes the case for decreasing government power, which would make lie better for all and I like his conclusion: “For the left, concentration of political power is a non-issue. For me, that makes their concerns with inequality come across as unfocused at best and phony at worst.” Indeed. Any reply, Mr. Yglesias?
Hat tip: Don Boudreaux