I have been reading The Triumph of Economic Freedom, by Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux. It overlaps a bit with my recent project of creating lectures on 20th century American history.
The book recounts a series of what the authors call myths about economic history. As I have discovered doing my own project, textbooks in American history provide the narrative from the progressive point of view. This accounts for each of the myths cited by Gramm and Boudreaux. There may be several myths, but all of them can be boiled down to a simple maxim that I believe captures the core belief of progressive economics:
Business owners are malevolent. Progressives are heroic. Technocrats are problem-solvers.
As depicted in a progressive narrative, business owners are heartless, greedy, and socially irresponsible. They exploit workers. They rip off consumers. They are given pejorative names, from “robber barons” to “malefactors of great wealth” to “billionaire oligarchs.”
Accordingly, progressives tell us that we should be thankful for reforms that bring about technocratic regulation. Without the progressive heroes, we would all be working next to blast furnaces, toiling in 12-hour shifts six days a week. Our food would contain rat droppings. Banks would devour our finances with predatory loans.
Current themes of progressive economics follow from the basic maxim. Why are rents too high in New York? Landlords are malevolent. Why does America spend so much on health care? Perhaps it is doctors and hospitals that are malevolent. If not them, then the insurance companies are malevolent.
Who is it that cares enough to battle these malevolent forces that have created an affordability crisis? Progressive heroes.
What is the solution? Technocrats controlling rents. Technocrats taking charge of the health care system.
Progressive economics is a simple story of good and evil. Economics as I understand it is a bit more subtle. It does not treat outcomes as determined by motives. Instead, outcomes emerge from market forces, including competition, supply, and demand.
It should not require an entire book to expose the fallacies of progressive economics. It can be done in one lesson.
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