California banned plastic bags…The Nobel Prize winning economist FA Hayek once observed that the “curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
It’s a phrase that comes to mind watching California lawmakers double down on its ban on plastic grocery bags, a policy lawmakers passed ten years ago and today admit failed. They also banned plastic straws. Politicians and their advisers are obtuse!
Humans naturally prioritize their own special interests. Yet, coercing others through government intervention while asserting moral superiority reveals self-deception, not moral virtue.
This paragraph made me think of the current government push to class anything that doesn't prioritise their own interests as mis-dis-information. Also the use of propaganda to make people unconsciously accept the governments own interests as their own. Hayek brilliantly had much to say about this in Chapter 11 The End Of Truth.
My first “farm” was in Bedford, NH. I was constrained by the Historic District in my desire to reclaim former pastures that filled with sumac “because I would destroy the character of the land.” Needless to say, I ran out of space and needed to move. So, I approached a farmer who was retiring who had sold several thousand acres already to developers and clearly loved his last little bit of 98 acres along Wallace Road. Bluebirds loved it, too, and I had never seen so many in my life. None of his children wanted the farm, but he wouldn’t sell to me. I think he preferred to just sell it to developers ultimately. That was his choice but he thought long and hard about it.
California banned plastic bags…The Nobel Prize winning economist FA Hayek once observed that the “curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
It’s a phrase that comes to mind watching California lawmakers double down on its ban on plastic grocery bags, a policy lawmakers passed ten years ago and today admit failed. They also banned plastic straws. Politicians and their advisers are obtuse!
Thanks, Mike. For sure that is one of Hayek's most evocative quotations.
Humans naturally prioritize their own special interests. Yet, coercing others through government intervention while asserting moral superiority reveals self-deception, not moral virtue.
This paragraph made me think of the current government push to class anything that doesn't prioritise their own interests as mis-dis-information. Also the use of propaganda to make people unconsciously accept the governments own interests as their own. Hayek brilliantly had much to say about this in Chapter 11 The End Of Truth.
Great points, Andrew. I just cross-posted an essay that makes the same point.
And, yes, Chapter 11 is chilling.
My first “farm” was in Bedford, NH. I was constrained by the Historic District in my desire to reclaim former pastures that filled with sumac “because I would destroy the character of the land.” Needless to say, I ran out of space and needed to move. So, I approached a farmer who was retiring who had sold several thousand acres already to developers and clearly loved his last little bit of 98 acres along Wallace Road. Bluebirds loved it, too, and I had never seen so many in my life. None of his children wanted the farm, but he wouldn’t sell to me. I think he preferred to just sell it to developers ultimately. That was his choice but he thought long and hard about it.
Carol, Such an instructive story! Government often blocks preservation by thoughtful stewards.