According to Greg Ransom's blog, http://hayekcenter.org/
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From Steven Hayward, The Age of Reagan, 1964-1980, The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, p. xxii:
“Lee Edwards recalls being once left along in Reagan’s study while then-Governor Reagan went to the kitchen to prepare cocktails. Edwards began browsing Reagan’s bookshelves, and was astonished to find dense works of political economy by authors such as Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek heavily underlined and annotated in Reagan’s handwriting .. “
I do not find this shocking whatsoever.
Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.
- Edmund Burke
I do There are a lot of articles on this website that debunk the myth that reagan was ever a free market president
Snowflake: I do There are a lot of articles on this website that debunk the myth that reagan was ever a free market president
So what?
jmorris84:So what?
Quite true.
A president has to make concessions.
Felipe:A president has to make concessions.
A president wants to
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
And Alan Greenspan was part of the inner circle of Ayn Rand, a person whose political philosophy was Free Market Capitalism.
Ayn Rand called the launch of the space shuttle an example of rationality, it was/is an example of theft.
Most people are not completely consistent throughout their lives. Those with political power and the intent to hold on to it are up there in being inconsistent with the sports commentators of the world.
Reagan also read bastiat. Check out this interview...
http://reason.com/archives/1975/07/01/inside-ronald-reagan
He also said the heart and sole of conservatism is libertarianism (which is wrong).
He preached a good game but he couldn't follow through on his rhetoric, not as governor of california and not as the president.
February 17 - 1600 - Giordano Bruno is burnt alive by the catholic church. Aquinas : "much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death."
Reagan wasn't the same after he got shot.
He was at best, a smaller government Republican.
He makes Ron Paul look like Hans Hoppe.
Reagan nearly tripled the deficit and increased government spending in terms of GDP, I think you're doing Ron Paul a disservice by making that comment. :)
How so?
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4174/saturday-night-live-president-reagan-mastermind
We are all forgetting the wise words of Joseph Stromberg. Reagan's arm was broken for both terms of his presidency, that is why he couldn't veto anything!
'Men do not change, they unmask themselves' - Germaine de Stael
CuriousGeorge: Reagan nearly tripled the deficit and increased government spending in terms of GDP, I think you're doing Ron Paul a disservice by making that comment. :)
It's probably Rothbard who wrote the most damning article on Reagan.
Was it not Karl Marx who once said, "It's the crackbrained meddling by the authorities which can aggravate an existing crisis"?
Marx said this not because he was a free marketer, but because he had studied and knew of the empirical facts concerning the ruin that comes to the economy by government intervention.
Are Marx and Reagan free marketers? No, they are people who have the same premise of facts that free marketers have, but their actions and directions were for something else.
What Reagan did was change public opinion about the free market and the other issues he campaigned for. Before Reagan most public discourse was about what government should do about this or that. The idea that government should do nothing was always an extreme minority position and Reagan did change that.
It's hard to believe that Richard Nixon, who created the EPA, defaulted on the government's gold obligation, and instituted universal wage and price controls, was considered a conservative in his day. Or that George H.W. Bush, while a Republican congressman, introduced the first bill to federally fund abortions.
REASON: What about Rand or Rothbard? REAGAN: No. I haven’t read Ayn Rand since The Fountainhead. I haven’t read Atlas Shrugged.The last few years, I must say, have been a little rough on me for doing that kind of reading–for eight years I found that when I finished reading the memorandums and reports and so forth, then I found myself digging into nonfiction, economists and so forth, for help on the problems that were confronting me.
REASON: What about Rand or Rothbard?
REAGAN: No. I haven’t read Ayn Rand since The Fountainhead. I haven’t read Atlas Shrugged.The last few years, I must say, have been a little rough on me for doing that kind of reading–for eight years I found that when I finished reading the memorandums and reports and so forth, then I found myself digging into nonfiction, economists and so forth, for help on the problems that were confronting me.
Strange he didn't mention Rothbard. I wonder if it was on purpose or he really hadn't read him.
Prateek Sanjay: Was it not Karl Marx who once said, "It's the crackbrained meddling by the authorities which can aggravate an existing crisis"?
I somehow doubt that the term "crackbrained" existed back then.
Caley McKibbin: Prateek Sanjay: Was it not Karl Marx who once said, "It's the crackbrained meddling by the authorities which can aggravate an existing crisis"? I somehow doubt that the term "crackbrained" existed back then.
You doubt the truth.
Karl Marx: As you can see, it’s an important matter. Firstly, the whole theory of circulation is denied in its very fundamentals. Secondly, it is shown that the progress of crises, even though the credit system be a condition of the same, is concerned with currency only in so far as crackbrained meddling by the authorities in its regulation may aggravate an existing crisis, as in 1847.
As you can see, it’s an important matter. Firstly, the whole theory of circulation is denied in its very fundamentals. Secondly, it is shown that the progress of crises, even though the credit system be a condition of the same, is concerned with currency only in so far as crackbrained meddling by the authorities in its regulation may aggravate an existing crisis, as in 1847.
The quote is from a letter from Marx to Engels in 1851. You can find the original text here.
"I cannot prove, but am prepared to affirm, that if you take care of clarity in reasoning, most good causes will take care of themselves, while some bad ones are taken care of as a matter of course." -Anthony de Jasay
Yeah, what needs to be said about Marx is that his utopian and ill-thought out political ideas aside, he actually studied economics.
Karl Marx never supported central planning. This must be emphasised by all means. He knew that a single central authority couldn't sit down and calculate the best way of allocating resources. He supported efficiency and allowing the players involved in trade and production to determine how they allocated their own given resources based on the specific information available to them; specific information which would never be available to centralized government authorities.
Obviously, he may well have recognized that businessmen had the potential to use offices of central authorities for their benefit and contribute to the misallocation of resources, but he assumed that giving the powers of allocation to the workers would solve this problem; he did not anticipate that it would only be used to justify further central planning "in the name of the People", which is what happened, instead of simply letting people with capital run the show with enterprises, whatever "class divisions" it may create. Ultimately, while the status granted to businessmen has allowed them the most capacity in destroying the free market, at least we can rest easy knowing that no group of people have remained the richest forever. After all, how many Rockerfellers do you see in top richest lists, compared to back in the 1940s?
The issue is not that Marx supported central planning but that he did not support property rights. He wanted property to be controlled by the people? The only mechanism keep people from taking property from others is a defined system or private property rights and a defined system to handle aggression. Once private property was removed from society, society became a giant mob plundering the most vulnerable. Eventually the most violent mob, Lenin and his crew, seized political power and without private property rights seized control of the economy. The result was terrible.
Rational, stable and productive society is based upon two simple principals: Non Aggression and Private Property Rights through Homesteading. Without these principals society is doomed to fail as producers and property owners fall prey to aggression until there is nothing being produced.
Reading Mises and Hayek doesn't mean you subscribe to their ideas.
Reagan was a Democrat turned Republican, and part of a group that called themselves conservatives. Modern conservatives use classical liberalism as the basis of their philosophy, even though they don't adhere to it completely. They've taken bits and pieces of different economic and political philosophies and created something that works for them - the reasoning is somewhat flawed, but they do try. I wouldn't necessarily say that conservatism is an off-shoot of classical liberalism, but conservatives do. While they like to link to classical liberalism as a way to tell people they've been here from the beginning, the movement isn't that old.
Reagan talked about small government, but did a lot to create bigger government - especially increasing executive power. So his rhetoric on fiscal issues was more closely linked to libertarianism, but his actions were as Republican as they've always been. On social issues libertarians and conservatives are at the opposite end of the spectrum, so for anyone to suggest that Reagan was a libertarian needs to look more closely at Reagan's stances toward social issues.
My view on Reagan and taxes is that taxation was already so high when he took office. To increase revenue, lowering taxes was necessary. So while many will say that he pushed for lower taxation based on libertarian principles, my belief is that he wanted more revenue to build up the military. This is consistent with previous Republican administrations. I'd say Reagan had enough understanding of the Austrian and Chicago Schools to form a basic policy for an economic turn-around, but he did so only to obtain Republican goals and cannot be considered a full-fledge proponent of libertarian ideas. Reagan wasn't stupid - he used whatever worked to his advantage. That included a Fed policy of controlling interest rates to fuel economic growth (i.e., a massive bubble). This worked for around 30 years, but we are now seeing the price to be paid for that policy.
In addition, there's a big difference between Reagan the Reformer and Reagan the Emperor. The assassination attempt was about the time where this difference is most recognizable. The problem with the State is that once in power even well meaning people will turn to the bad - whether it's due to the political climate or from the human flaw of becoming corrupt from power. Reagan also delegated a lot more than previous presidents, and some question whether or not he was all there by the end of his presidency, especially in light of Alzheimers.
Reagan was one of the most influential presidents. I woudn't necessarily say he was great, but then I don't really see any presidents that I'd even call great. If there was one positive thing from Reagan's presidency, it's that some economic principles proposed by Austrians were put into practice, albeit limited and brief.
Scott Jefferies: According to Greg Ransom's blog, http://hayekcenter.org/ " From Steven Hayward, The Age of Reagan, 1964-1980, The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, p. xxii: “Lee Edwards recalls being once left along in Reagan’s study while then-Governor Reagan went to the kitchen to prepare cocktails. Edwards began browsing Reagan’s bookshelves, and was astonished to find dense works of political economy by authors such as Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek heavily underlined and annotated in Reagan’s handwriting .. “ "
To use a religious metaphor, the Devil can quote the Bible all day.
“Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government.” - Proudhon