I love reading Frederick Bastiat (1801-50) - two centuries ago, Bastiat was explaining the fallacies in people's economic thinking and supporting freedom and free trade as the quintessential foundations for liberty.
The ideas he espoused have not lost any meaning, but since his time new attacks on economic and political freedom arose. Firstly, there was the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century, which effectively reduce the life of the individual to that of expendability.
Here's an excellent quotation that captures much of the political philosophy I've espoused over the past two decades:
“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”
This is why we seek to limit political interference in our lives and economies. When there is interference - the ubiquitous G in macroeconomics - guaranteed it will create chaos and economic distortions that hurt people. The people who 'run' our economies (into the ground) are not made of finer clay than us - we believe they are because we have three to four thousand years of conditioning that authority somehow gives people godlike abilities.
Remember King Canute? He showed his courtiers that a king could not turn back the tide. He was - in that respect - a humble and good king.
Today, our politicians think they can drive economic wealth. No they can't. They do better by getting out of the way.
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