August

IDEASON LIBERTY 292 The New Industrial Policy Thomas J. DiLorenzo Timely lessons from previous industrial policies. 301 National Service: Utopias Revisited Doug Bandow William James, Randolph Bourne, Robert McNamara, and Margaret Mead all advocated service to the state. 306 Paying Bureaucracies to Run Amok Gary North Why bureaucracies grow. 309 Are Americans Overfed? James E. McClure and T. Norman Van Cott Statistics can be deceptive. 311 The Benefits of Variation James Rolph Edwards The world benefits enormously from variation. 313 Cheap Capitalism A. M. Rogers It takes a rich capitalist country to give cheapness real meaning. 315 For Your Own Good Roger Clites The case against the President's Council on Physical Fitness. 316 Parents and Government Duncan A. Simpson Parents have abdicated responsibility for their children. 318 Raising Taxes Stifles Initiative-Invisibly Richard W. Stevens An example of the unseen effects of high taxes.

320 The Route to 9066 Wilma J. Moore The desire for cultural diversity may be a disguised form of racism. 322 From Marx to Mises: A Rev-iew Essay Peter J. Boettke A critique of David Ramsay Steele's new book. 326 Book Reviews John Chamberlain reviews Costly Returns: The Burden of the U.S. Tax System by James L. Payne; Visions Upon the Land: Man and Nature on the Western Range by Karl Hess, Jr., reviewed by Jonathan Adler. CONTENTS AUGUST 1993 VOL. 43 NO.8 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY Published by The Foundation for Economic Education Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 President: Hans F. Sennholz, Ph.D. Editor: John W. Robbins, Ph.D. Senior Editor: Beth A. Hoffman Associate Editors: John Chamberlain Bettina Bien Greaves Edmund A. Opitz Paul L. Poirot, Ph.D. Contributing Editors: Doug Bandow Clarence B. Carson, Ph.D. Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Ph.D. Robert Higgs, Ph.D. John Hospers, Ph.D. Ronald Nash, Ph.D.

William H. Peterson, Ph.D. Richard H. Timberlake, Ph.D. Lawrence H. White, Ph.D. 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 non-political, educational champion of pri vate property, the free market, and limited government. FEE is classified as a 26 USC 501(c)(3)tax-exempt organization. Copyright © 1993 by The Foundation for Economic Education. 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 Foun dation. The costs of Foundation projects and ser vices are met through donations, which are invited in any amount. Donors of $25.00 or more receive a subscription to The Free man. Additional copies of single issues of The Freeman are $2.00. For foreign deliv ery, a donation of $40.00 a year is suggested to cover mailing costs.

Bound volumes of The Freeman are avail able from The Foundation for calendar years 1972 to date. The Freeman is available on microfilm and CD-ROM from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Ar bor, MI 48106. A computer diskette contain ing the articles from this month's issue is available from FEE for $10.00; specify ei ther 3V2" or 5V4" format. Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 PERSPECTIVE I Need My Wants I grew up in Chicago during the Depres sion. At that time, in that place, a need referred to food, shelter, and clothing. To day, some wants have escalated into needs. Recently 1 asked one of my granddaugh ters what she wanted for Christmas. "I need a Ken doll." (Ken, as in Barbie and Ken.) "You don't need a Ken doll; you want a Ken doll." "No, I need a Ken doll." Already, at age eight, my granddaughter sensed the significance of changing her re quest from want to need. Needs are essen tial; wants are tinged with greed. She did not want that stigma.

There's a hint of something else here. Shifting an object from want to need shifts the focus from the "needy" person to the potential filler of the need. The unspoken words might go like this: "The Ken doll is a genuine need. You are able to meet that need. Will you meet my need?" Will 1 be a good grandfather? Because of my longtime friend's terminal illness, I did yard chores for him. 1 remem ber his raising the want/need condition to a different level. "Stan, the lawn needs mowing," he told me three times over a two-day period before 1 mowed the lawn. His statement contains not only the pos sible hidden agenda in my granddaughter's response, but two other items. First, the need was transferred from him to the lawn: "Hey, don't look at me. Mowing isn't my need; it's the lawn's need." The needy person becomes the self-appointed spokes man for something outside himself. Second, his remark is in the form of a statement, not a request, not: "Stan, would you mow the lawn, please?" 1 notice that many men have difficulty asking another man for help. (I learned that first by observ ing my own behavior.) 1 believe neither my granddaughter nor my friend intended the meanings 1 have breathed into their statements. They may 290 have felt a need or a lack, but feeling does not make it so. Neither product-yes, a lawn is a man-made productis a necessity.

I don't believe my granddaughter's and friend's perceptions of reality are isolated events. Their common perceptions are, I have observed, part of a national perception. Whatever the cause for our mispercep tion, our survival as individuals, as families, and as a nation is dependent upon knowing the difference between needs and wants. -STAN KARP The Advantage of Being Armed Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the peo ple of almost every other nation, the exis tence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Not withstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

-THE FEDERALIST The Unfairest Taxes In 1790,the U.S. Tariff Code consisted of a single sheet of paper. Today, there are more than 8,757 tariffs -plus lots of quotas, so-called voluntary import restraints, and other import restrictions. These trade bar riers cost consumers $80 billion per year about $800 for every American family. -EXECUTIVE ALERT East and West In recent months I have run into many people who say that because I am an Asian American, I must recognize the superiority of Eastern culture over Western culture, and that I should be championing the virtues of Eastern culture such as civility and rePERSPECTIVE spect for moral authority, the elderly, and the family. It is true, Asian culture and civilization have contributed much to the life of the mind: In philosophy, we have the names Confucius, Mencius, Chuantze, and Lao-Tze; in literature, we find outstanding writers such as WuChien-An, Li-Po, and Tu-Fu; in art, we find great work by Tang Po-Hu; and in music, there is Kuanghan-Chin.

I value and respect what these great Asian people have contributed to improving the quality of life for both Westerners and Easterners. But, at the same time, my mind keeps returning to the West. It was Shakespeare who wrote Romeo and Juliet and George Eliot who wrote Silas Marner; Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, and Charles Dickens, David Cop perfield and Great Expectations. Bach com posed the Brandenburg Concertos; Vivaldi, "The Four Seasons." Dante told us about hell and Milton about paradise. Plato gave us the Socratic dialogues; Aristotle told us about logic. Thomas Aquinas explained why it is rational to believe in the God of the Bible. Our Founding Fathers gave the world the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights; Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address and affirmed the important truth that all men - black, white, and yellow, Eastern and Western-are cre ated equal.

I am on the side of those scholars and peo ple ofgood willwho want to encourage a great conversation among the moral and intellec tual giants of both Western and Eastern cultures and civilizations. We need to un derstand and appreciate and read and study the great works of Eastern (Asian) writers, philosophers, historians, musicians, and artists, as well as the great works of the moral and intellectual giants of the West. However, I refuse to believe that because I am Asian-American I must say that Asian culture and civilization are superior to West ern culture and civilization.It is the West, not the East, that has been most influenced by Christ, and that has made all the difference. -HAVEN BRADFORD Gow 291 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY THE NEW INDUSTRIAL POLICY by Thomas J. DiLorenzo Money will go where the political power is .... It will go where the union power is mobilized. It will go where the campaign contributors want it to go. It will go where the mayors and governors as well as congressmen and senators have the power to push it.