Politics

Besides promoting free trade, Turgot argued against taxes and tariffs. Due to the reciprocal nature of trade, Turgot pointed out the absurdity of wanting only to export while not importing. Protective tariffs, set up to discourage imports, were described as war of all against all using state monopoly privilege at the expense of consumers. They led to a system of reciprocal oppression between industries and a balance of annoyance and injustice which made everyone worse off. ...

Turgot regarded industry regulation as a system of coerced cartelization and special privileges conferred by the state. Regulations effectively serve as taxes which increase costs incurred by the producers/sellers, which reduce competition and discourage innovation. Rather than protecting consumers, these regulations compel them to buy inferior products at higher prices. Economic activities involve the use of the particular knowledge in sole possession of individual market participants. It is not possible for a government or a theorist to obtain or use all such such knowledge. The owners of labor and capital are best suited to employ these factors to the most advantageous use with the help of their skills, experiences, and expectations. ...

The Question That Stumps Libertarians The libertarian, upon pointing out the excesses of the state, is confronted by the inevitable question from the statist: “Are you an anarchist?” The connotations of anarchy are such that the libertarian, if he says yes, finds himself defending ‘chaos.’ If, on the other hand, he says no, he legitimizes a degree of state intervention, and from that point, having ceded ground to the statist, he consigns himself to the defensive for the remainder of the debate. ...

I recently revisited the chapter titled “Why the Worst Get on Top” from FA Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. The essay discusses the sociopolitical dynamics within a totalitarian system that inevitably encourage and enable bad actors to gain power while sidelining decent people. The worst features of totalitarian governments are not accidental or avoidable; they are features totalitarianism produces given enough time to operate. Just as a socialist planner must choose between either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans, a totalitarian dictator must renounce morality or fail. Socialism produces a totalitarian society, which places at its helm a dictator not bound by common morals, and from this system we get social and economic repression, destruction of life and property, elimination of political alternatives, conscription, etc. ...