Lately I’ve read, or re-read, three books the authors of which address political dysfunction and social strife that plague our society and may threaten the survival of our union. Two are 2024 publications, the third was published in 1987 but remains relevant. All three describe how our political processes should operate for the common good but don’t.
The two new books are Joseph Stiglitz’s The Road to Freedom and A Republican’s Lament by Bill Crawford. The third is Alan Blinder’s Hard Heads, Soft Hearts. Stiglitz and Blinder are highly acclaimed economists. Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate. Blinder has received several prestigious awards and is a former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Crawford is an acclaimed Mississippi author.
If Stiglitz’s title rings a bell for fans of The Road to Serfdom, F. A. Hayek’s 1944 libertarian classic, that is his specific intention. His theme is the antithesis of Hayek’s whose book inspired Ronald Reagan to say, “. . . government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Reagan was talking about a calcified, do-nothing Congress, which it still is. But his remark has been misappropriated to mean all government is corrupt, duplicitous, focused only on its own wellbeing and all taxes are theft. I heartily agree our political duopoly-controlled Congress does much harm. The social, economic and moral foundation for taxation is another story.
As much harm as the two-party system has done nationally, one-party control in Mississippi has been even more harmful to most Mississippian, as Crawford’s book details complete with data, facts, truth, something idealogues avoid.
Crawford’s lament is Republicans inherited from Democrats a bereft state and have done nothing to improve the lives of most Mississippians. Republican hegemony in Mississippi has been in place since they took control of the governor’s mansion and the legislature. But Mississippi has remained a perennial bottom dweller on many, critical quality of life measures.
The same folks Democrats left behind, especially the least of us, Republicans are still leaving behind. Crawford had high hopes George W. Bush’s and Gil Carmichael’s “compassionate conservatism” would be Mississippi Republican’s touchstone. His Republican Party would bring to government both efficiency and a focus on progress for all. Alas, it was not to be, done in by still monopolized state government. Republicans have proven to be soft headed and hard hearted just as were their Democrat (formerly Dixiecrat) predecessors.
As Blinder shows, many Republican policy proposals have been hardheaded but also hard hearted. They may appear to promise efficiency, balanced budgets, and minimal regulation, which lately they have not delivered. However, they would achieve those goals at the expense of public services that make better the lives of many, especially the have nots of society, which they have largely delivered.
Democrats, says Blinder, tend to support policy measures that provide benefits for those most in need but are sometimes inefficient and too expensive. Soft headed but soft hearted. If a tradeoff must be made, I prefer leaning toward compassion rather than leaning toward hard heartedness.
Stiglitz’s book lays bare the moral fallacy in the concept of freedom upon which Hayek and his disciples rely. Stiglitz shows how profoundly mistaken is that interpretation of what freedom means. It fails to grasp what freedom means in a pluralistic, deeply interpersonally intertwined, highly technologically advanced society. In such societies, freedoms are not boundless, they are constrained by how one’s choices affect others.
As Stiglitz says, one person’s freedom is another person’s “unfreedom.” There are few choices individuals and certainly firms make that are not ladened with externalities, effects that fall on those not involved in decision making. Those with power, exercising their freedoms, exploit the powerless making them unfree to pay reasonable prices, enjoy clean air, water and land, among other unfreedoms. If you would like to know Stiglitz’s solution, read his book and John Rawl’s A Theory of Justice.
Stiglitz, I and, I strongly suspect, both Crawford and Blinder would opt for a hardheaded soft-hearted government. Next week we have a choice to move toward either Democrat’s hard heads and soft hearts or Republican’s soft heads and hard hearts. Which will you choose?
Patrick Taylor lives in Ridgeland.
