What should Obama have said in his speech? Here’s what John Stossel wishes he’d said.
John Stossel | January 26, 2012
Has Barack Obama learned nothing in three years? Last night, during his State of the Union address, he promised “a blueprint for an economy.” But economies are crushed by blueprints. An economy is really nothing more than people participating in an unfathomably complex spontaneous network of exchanges aimed at improving their material circumstances. It can’t even be diagrammed, much less planned. And any attempt at it will come to grief.
Politicians like Obama believe they are the best judges of how we should conduct our lives. Of course a word like “blueprint” would occur to the president. He, like most who want his job, aspires to be the architect of a new society.
But we who love our lives and our freedom say: No, thanks. We need no social architect. We need liberty under law. That’s it.
Obama—and most Republicans are no different—doesn’t understand the real liberal revolution that transformed civilization. The crux of that revolution is that law should define general visible rules of just conduct, applicable to all, with no eye to particular outcomes. In other words, as Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek taught, the only “purpose” of law is to enable us all to pursue our individual purposes in peace.
If Obama really wanted, as he says, a society in which “everybody gets a fair shot,” he would work to shrink government so that the sphere of freedom could expand. Instead, he expands government and raises taxes on wealthier people, as though giving politicians more money were a way to make society better. Instead, the interventionist state rigs the game on behalf of special interests.
What a wonderful vision of what America could be!
John Stossel for President!
Have you considered, Newt, he works for the same network and maybe Bill for VP.
Think for yourself! Don’t let Fox News influence you nor any other media group. In the next election vote your choice not the choice of some media maggot… Be a true independent vote the person not the party. It is far to early to tell which republican will run in the next election..Ron Paul is still in the race.