Writes Greg Privette:

Hi Lew,

I saw the blog post by Walter Block of a letter he received that stated:

Subject: WSJ

Just read your work in the Wall Street Journal

You failed to mention the US Military …

Absolute Socialism that works

So this person is both exactly right and exactly wrong in the same statement. The military is a fairly good example of absolute socialism. But does it actually “work”?

The idea that the military, or any government program “works” brings back a memory of the late, great, Harry Browne that has stuck with me all these years. When Harry had his AM radio show he would always issue the challenge for anyone to call with an example of anything the government does that doesn’t involve force, or any program that actually works. Harry however, always made sure to define what “works” meant in order to avoid the confusion that is present in the above letter. He would point out that in order to qualify as a program that “worked” it had to accomplish the task is was supposedly created to do, and accomplish it within the originally specified cost. This was an important clarification because as Harry would point out, these programs always benefit someone. So the fact someone benefits doesn’t necessarily mean the program “works”. After all, if no one benefitted they wouldn’t bother to create the program in the first place. So using that definition of “works”, the military does accomplish certain goals, and does benefit certain parties. The question as Harry pointed out is, at what cost, and benefit to whom?

One of my favorite callers to Harry’s show was a guy who ran across the show by accident and heard him saying all government programs involved force. The guy was livid about the whole idea. He said he could give an easy example from his own experience. He had gone to college on a Pell grant, and no one from the government had forced him to take the grant! When Harry pointed out to Mr. Clueless that the government had forced someone else to pay for his college and that whoever they payer was may have preferred for example, to buy braces for his kid’s teeth, the guy was completely dumbfounded. The only response he could manage was to suggest that if the guy being forced to pay for his college also needed braces for his kid’s teeth, maybe he should get an extra part time job!

Hope everyone at LRC and Mises Institute has a Merry Christmas!