We Are All Central Planners Now

Published on September 16, 2024

by
Jacob G. Hornberger
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No matter how one comes out on who won the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, one thing is crystal clear: Hardly anyone questions whether the president and the federal government should be managing the economy. It’s now just a given that such is the case.

Oh sure, there are differences of opinion on how the economy should be run. There are incessant arguments and debates on tariffs, trade wars, the minimum wage, regulations, interest rates, Federal Reserve, subsidies, bailouts, welfare, immigration controls, Social Security, Medicare, income taxes, and the like. But they are all part and parcel of a presidentially managed or centrally planned economy, which most everyone passively accepts.

A funny part about all this is that statists have convinced themselves that a presidentially managed or centrally planned economy is actually a “free-enterprise system” — well, at least when it’s found here in the United States. That’s the power of public (i.e., government) schooling and state-supported colleges and universities. They inculcate that mindset within minors and then continue the indoctrination through college. This mindset remains within people through adulthood, with most of them never realizing how they acquired their mindset.

Thus, as economic conditions go from bad to worse — such as soaring prices or a $35 trillion debt or a $2 trillion deficit or a debased currency or a Social Security crisis or a healthcare crisis — it’s always blamed on “the failure of free enterprise” rather than on a centrally managed economy. The solution that people call for, of course, is electing a “better” president, whose plan to reform, fix, and improve America’s “free-enterprise system” is always based on government involvement in economic activity.

Of course, this funny phenomenon is not new. It’s how President Franklin Roosevelt justified the conversion of America’s economic system to a centrally managed welfare state. He convinced Americans that the Great Depression was the result of “the failure of America’s free-enterprise system” and that a system of government intervention was needed to “save America’s free-enterprise system.” It is a canard that is found in most every public (i.e., government) school and state-supported college and university today.

A genuine free-market economic system is the opposite of a centrally managed economic system. “Free” means free of government control and management. Thus, a free-market or free-enterprise economic system is one in which the president and the government play no role whatsoever in economic activity. In other words, no tariffs, trade wars, minimum wage, regulations, central bank, Social Security, Medicare, subsidies, immigration controls, bailouts, or any other governmental interference with economic activity. In a genuine “free-enterprise system,” all economic activity is free from governmental interference and presidential management.

Also, ideally in addition to a separation of economy and the state, there is a separation of education and the state. In other words, there is no more public (i.e, government) schooling or state-supported colleges and universities. That would eliminate the state propaganda and indoctrination that falsely inculcates the mindset within people that holds that a centrally planned or presidentially managed economy is “free enterprise” or that it “saves” free enterprise.

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About Jacob G. Hornberger

Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

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