December

Hannah B. Lapp Legal busybodies are neither protecting our children nor respecting our rights. 481 Economics and Ethics in the Public Policy of the Free Society Alexei M. Marcoux An elegant solution to problems of efficiency and ethics. 483 A Tale of Two Dictionaries John R Finneran The individual versus the committee. 486 Book Reviews Welfare Economics and Externalities in an Open-Ended Universe:A Modern Austrian Perspective by Roy E. Cordato, reviewed by William H. Peterson; The Seven Fat Years-And How to Do It Again by Robert L. Bartley, reviewed by Robert Batemarco; Money of the Mind-Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milken by James Grant, reviewed by James Picerno. 491 Index 1992 CONTENTS DECEMBER 1992 VOL. 42 NO. 12 THEFREEMAN IDEAS ON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 President: Hans F. Sennholz Editor: John W. Robbins Senior Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Contributing Editors: Bettina Bien Greaves Edmund A. Opitz Editor Emeritus: Paul L. Poirot The Freeman is the monthly publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. FEE, established in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, is a nonpolitical educational champion of private property, the free market, and limited govern ment. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization. Other officers of FEE's Board of Trustees are: Gregg C.

MacDonald, chairman; W.A. Speakman, vice-chairman; Paul L. Poirot, secretary; Don L. Foote, treasurer. The costs of Foundation projects and services are met through donations. Donations are in vited in any amount. A trial subscription to The Freeman is available to any interested person in the United States for the asking. Additional copies of single issues are $2.00 each. For foreign delivery, a donation of $40.00 a year is required to cover direct mailing costs. Copyright © 1992 by The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue provided appropriate credit is given and two copies of the reprinted material are sent to The Foundation. Bound volumes of The Freeman are available for $15.00 each from The Foundation for calendar years 1971 to date. Earlier volumes as well as current issues are available on microfilm from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106.

The Freeman considers unsolicited editorial submissions, but they must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Our author's guide is available on request. Phone: (914) 591-7230 FAX: (914) 591-8910 PERSPECTIVE The Love of Money The famous Biblical statement about money is not about money but about loving it. It is the loveof money that is the root of all evil, not mon ey itself. And that is crucial-love is to be re served for God, family, and friends-in short, for those who are one's personal intimates, not for anything else. No wonder, then, that if one gets confused and actually loves money or golf or deep sea fishing, thus seriously mistaking one's priorities, it leads one astray and ought to be resisted. But there is nothing actually wrong with money-any more than with golf or deep sea fishing. - TIBOR R. MACHAN On Need In a market economy, consumers get what they want. If you're selling what people want, you will survive; if you're not, you won't. There are no hearings, no votes, no lobbying, no log-rolling, no protesting competitors, no grandstanding by morally superior do-gooders, and no judges.

Determining "need" by a political administra tive process is flatly impossible. Information about "need" exists only in the minds of poten tial customers faced with future conditions and alternatives that are unknowable to them. There is no way that future "needs" can be determined by anyone, even less by a committee that is tugged to and fro by lawyers and others intent on mischief. The only way to find need is to have an en trepreneur take a chance on his own nickel and see what happens in the market. -JOHN WENDERS A Self-Made Nation Businessmen, self-made men, and en trepreneurs are vilified in film, fiction, and televi sion. From Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt to the DallasTV soap opera, and the movie Rogerand Me about General Motors, businessmen are por trayed as villains and also as graceless, unlettered boors, the true ugly Americans. Why, when we are a nation of self-made men? 450 Some businessman, some risk taker, had to take a chance on the first railroad, automobile factory, and radio station. On a more prosaic level, some one had to believe in the plastic garden hose, and the stick-on towel rack. More often than not these were individuals who scraped together every nick el they could get their hands on and went to work.

Why is there such animosity toward those who are the glue that helps to hold the whole nation to gether? IBM founder Thomas Watson started as a sewing machine salesman. He was far from rich, but he had something to offer. Robert Gross bor rowed $17,000at the height of the Great Depres sion to buy the nameplate-which was about all that still existed of the Lockheed Aeroplane Company. One of his engineers, Jack Northrop, later struck out on his own, with borrowed money, to start his own company. And so it went with thousands of others who looked into the future, took enormous risks, and in time became successful. We are a nation of self-made men. And self made men have made us a self-made nation. They enable us to exist. They are the reason we are unique. To deny this is to deny the color of the grass or the inevitability of the seasons. If there is a moral, it is that we shouldn't be so harsh in our appraisal of the self-made man, the busi nessman.

-DONALD G. SMITH Poverty Poverty has been the natural condition of the world from time immemorial. It remains the con dition for the majority of the world's population to day. But there is a significant difference. It is no longer the natural condition. Today,each country determines for itself whether it willbe rich or poor. Its political policies,past and present, determine its economic status. One common belief is that countries are poor because they lack capital. But as Lord Bauer has PERSPECTIVE emphasized, if all the conditions for develop ment except capital are present, capital will soon be generated locally or be imported from abroad. In brief, a necessary,although not sufficientcon dition for economic development is the establish ment of an "enabling environment," essentially a classicalliberal government which maintains order and protects property but does not interfere in the economic realm.

-DAVID OSTERFELD Scienceand the State As applied, for example, to science, [central] planning means the attempt to replace the aims which science sets itself by aims set to science by the government in the interest of public welfare. It makes the government responsible for the ulti mate acceptance or rejection by the public of any particular claims of science and for granting or withdrawing protection to particular scientific pursuits in accordance with social welfare. The proper aims of science being denied justification and even reality, the scientist still pursuing them is naturally held guilty of a selfish desire for his own amusement. It will be logical and proper for the politician to intervene in scientific matters, claim ing to be the guardian of higher interests wrongly neglected by scientists. It will be sufficient for a crank to commend himself to a politician in order to increase considerably his chances of recogni tion as a scientist. In fields where scientific criteria allow wide latitude of judgment (e.g., medicine, agricultural science, or psychology) the crank who can enlist political support will find easy openings for establishing himself in a scientific position.

Thus corruption or outright servitude willweaken and narrow down the true practice of science; will distort its rectitude and whittle down its freedom. And it will similarly distort and whittle down all rectitude and freedom in every field of cultural and political activity. -MICHAEL POLANYI Science,Faithand Society 451 THEFREEMAN IDEASON UBERTY The Coming of Christ by John W. Robbins T his December 25 more than a billion peo ple will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The celebration is doubly ironic, for the date is not his birthday, and many celebrants have forgotten-or perhaps have never learned-the meaning of his birth. One of the most enthusiastic celebrants of Christmas I have known was an athe ist. She loved the decorations, the smells, the songs, the food and drink, the smilingfaces of chil dren, the gifts,and the fleeting feeling of goodwill. She, like many others, was a devotee of Christmas, but not of Christ.