Blogs everywhere are marking the anniversary of 9-11, the sadness, the anger, the defiance. We will win is the common sentiment, but I have to wonder how many of the writers know how to win. Jim Henley has a contrarian take:
Soon the columns, weblogs and airwaves will be full of people instructing us that we must "never forget" what happened in New York City, Washington DC and the sky above western Pennsylvania two years ago. As if any of us could or would forget the despicable acts that took place that day, the heroism, the damage, the wasted lives. What they really mean is not "remember," but dwell. Obsess. Lingeringly finger the scab. And most of all, fall in line when assured that some grand policy, however wise or unwise, is put forth in the name of that day and the atrocities that marked it.
Don't listen to these people. You and I do not need their instruction in how to remember or honor our dead. Nor need we go veiled, cowed or enraged to the end of our days to prove our memories or honor.
This is important because the memory of 9-11 is used to promulgate all sorts of things, like this piece of Tom Tancredo nonsense. Many of these things, including security measures, are counterproductive. As this nation becomes less free, it becomes less able to fight the Islamists and other Luddite-style anti-capitalists.
Radley Balko does know what it will take to win. And he points out Bush administration policies that actually hurt the war against terrorism.
There is a foundation, then, for capitalism to carve out new niches in corners of the globe it’s never reached before. There is an opportunity for vast new swaths of humanity to part with hellish poverty, to reach subsistence, then comfort, and then, eventually, prosperity...
But instead we do things that keep poor countries out of the market:
Just last year, President Bush signed a $246 billion farm subsidies bill... These subsidies enable huge American agro-firms to sell grain on the world market at a fraction of what it costs them to actually grow it. This makes all of these products more expensive for American consumers, but more importantly, it proves to be absolutely devastating for Third World farmers (search), who simply can’t compete. If an American farmer can sell a bushel of corn that cost him $1 to grow for 80 cents, thanks to subsidy checks, he can effectively price a Nigerian corn farmer right out of the market.
Military solutions, although sometimes required, are short term solutions. The long term solution is to build, here at home, the most open, free society with the freest market economy possible.
Posted by Walter at September 11, 2003 09:39 AM