I just saw yet another article by a follower of “Austrian Economics” claiming that last year’s economic melt down was not a failure of capitalism, because we don’t actually have capitalism. It’s all very formulaic: next comes the rant against liberalism/welfare/socialism, finishing with the very understated admission that the bailout was actually classic Mussolini fascism, and made the socialists equally outraged at the bipartisan clusterfuck in Washington.
But cheer up everyone, the left does the same thing. Over the years I’ve seen many explanations that Maoism, the Soviet Union and Sweden’s 102% income tax weren’t really socialism, and that if socialism was ever actually implemented it would be even spiffier than capitalism according to Hayek.
The syndrome reminds me of a saying from my days in software sales: Vaporware has no bugs. All you have to do is vote for order the latest and greatest, which isn’t quite ready, and all your problems will be solved real soon now.
If you know anyone who believes any of the three theses above, I would like very much to introduce them to collecting masterpieces of civil engineering, starting with a pioneering suspension bridge located about 200 miles south-southwest of here.