In this world, there are some guaranteed failures - proven again and again. None is more persistent than government policy. I mean all government policy. Government's welfare programs don't work. Its wars are a calamity. Its regulations hobble prosperity. Its monetary policy is one long fiasco. Its trade policies hurt everyone but a few insiders. Its taxes throw good money after bad.
So it has always been; so it will always be.
Why does our country persist, then, in these failed policies? Well, politicians benefit from them. So do special interests. The bureaucratic class is always scheming for more money and power. And some people just enjoy getting something for nothing.
The major culprits are the universities. They teach what Mises called statism, which is an intellectual attachment to the bogus idea that the State can accomplish all wonderful things if only it has enough power and money. They teach this in sociology, in economics, in politics, in history, even in literature and the humanities. If there is a single doctrine that academia embraces, it is that the State is great.
~ Lew Rockwell, president, Ludwig von Mises Institute, June 28, 2007
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