Chapter 13, Conclusion Summary and Analysis

In the 1920s and 1930s, most intellectuals believed that the economy should be centrally planned and many of those attitudes remain with us. Many regard nearly any government intervention as desirable and the defenders of freedom are on the defensive. Yet the experience of government intervention is on the side of liberty; it is clear that the market is superior. The promises of communism have failed to come to fruition.

Income taxes drown the productive members of society, monetary reforms have produced inflation, farming programs have propped up the wasteful and powerful. Public housing has made juvenile delinquency and poverty worse and the pure image of labor unions has been destroyed. Social security grows in size and cost and the list goes on. Exceptions exist, of course, including the interstate highway system, orbiting satellites and, not without criticism, the...