Keynes = Marx to the tenth power

By Donald Hank

The Von Mises organization recently published an article showing how Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (pronounced Ah‛-bĕ) is severely damaging the Japanese economy through his Keynesian economic policies, borrowed from Uncle Sam, who has had equal "success" with them. Abe introduced a program of currency issuance of unprecedented magnitude that immediately led to an equally unprecedented sales tax increase that has drastically curtailed household spending.

When it comes to economics (and foreign policy in some ways), the libertarians (represented, for example, by the Von Mises Organization) are essentially on the money. Unfortunately, they are miles from the mark in social terms, advocating as they do, for example, unlimited immigration, which they say will be controlled once we get rid of socialism. They seem not to have noticed that we have not yet gotten rid of socialism, inasmuch as their adherents in politics are anxiously striving to establish "immigration reform," i.e., code for amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Nor do they explain how undocumented workers who cross the border illegally for work would be daunted by a lack of welfare payments (for which they are not eligible anyway). Likewise, they advocate legalizing heretofore illegal drugs, based on the untested postulate that the problem will go away if they can just make drugs legal, because illegality makes them more attractive.

The problem with all – isms is that they degenerate from ideas to religions, and ignore reality. Like all – isms, libertarianism pointedly ignores the real world models, as I have pointed out here and here with regard to addictive drugs and here with regard to prostitution.

But libertarianism is not the only – ism that ignores reality when shaping policy.

The broader point that you should be able to infer from this (knowing what you do about fascism, Nazism, Marxism, etc) is that the scientific method of inquiry is shelved by ideologues of all stripes, who rely solely on propaganda and lofty theoretical writings, speeches, press releases and slogans whose net result is to keep people ignorant of the true effects of their policies and ideologies and to keep their pet ideas safely out of the clutches of serious inquiry. In many cases, we are even told that a highly questionable idea is "settled science," the ultimate inquiry quencher.

I had outlined previously why the scientific method is key and have pointed out that it is, ironically, almost universally rejected or neglected in those areas where it is most urgently needed.

If a political party could be put together with a libertarian economic platform and a conservative social platform – with both being based on real world models and not ideology, it would be a formidable force for revitalizing the Western world in economic, social and cultural terms.

In fact, were all professionals, particularly journalists, and politicians to adopt a scientific approach to reporting facts and ideas, the world would change tomorrow, knowledge would blossom and most of the untoward effects of ignorance would be roundly defeated.

Unfortunately, libertarianism has degenerated into anarchy. Literally. The Von Mises Organization endorses something called Anarcho-Capitalism, as I pointed out and debunked in an article appearing in American Daily Herald.

In addition to adopting a rigorous scientific approach to reporting, what America needs to do right now is stress two issues that politicians on both sides have always been reluctant to touch, and that is, sovereignty (the libertarians ignore it but so do the Dems and Rs) and Keynesianism.

We need to fight hard to recover our American sovereignty (protecting American culture and borders, declaring and defending our independence of groups like the UN and the CFR that remain consistently aloof to the grassroots, abolition of bureaucracies like the Department of Education, Agriculture, Homeland Security, NSA, etc, and restoration of monetary autonomy – freedom from the Fed). And we need to free America from Keynesianism, which is a sophisticated form of Marxism, only more dangerous because it is a virus infecting the entire globe, spreading poverty everywhere. Both of the main US parties are Keynesian through and through, which is why our economy is failing. (That's why voting indiscriminately for GOP candidates won't save us until we can successfully launch an anti-Keynesianism campaign that makes words like "stimulus" and policies like government job creation anathema to the public).

The article linked above handily dispatches Keynesian "stimulus" (in this context, we must never write that without quotation marks. Economic "stimulus" as commonly construed only stimulates poverty, nothing else) and shows how it is slowly eroding the Japanese economy, which is the US economy on steroids.

This is scary, Folks. It is where we are headed if we can't get rid of most of our politicians and kick out any lawmaker who votes for "stimulus" or suggests that jobs can be created by government.

The only legitimate and authentic job creation is the creation of jobs that pay employees out of earnings derived on the free market, not from the public treasury, and without competition-stifling cronyism. The only true stimulus is less government-business cronyism. We therefore desperately need to introduce and enforce the concept of separation of business and state.

Here's an idea for a T-Shirt, bumper sticker, poster or the like:

Keynes = Marx ¹⁰.

© Donald Hank