Rock on Lew Rockwell: Quote from The Left, The Right and The State

"The same is true for Social Security. Those who say they want privatization are pushing a system no different in kind from the present one. Your money would still be stolen by the state. Pensions would still be guaranteed by the state. You might even end up paying more, one premium for current retirees and another to fund your own “private” one. The only difference is that a portion of the money will be permitted to be held by private companies, making them in part dependent on public subsidies.

A hundred years ago, a person who proposed such a system would have been considered a socialist. Today, he is a “libertarian public policy expert.” If what you desire is true free-market reform, don’t call it privatization. We need to stop the present racket. Under real market reforms, no one would be looted and no one would be guaranteed anything. The slogan should be: stop the theft.

In Poland, large factories shouldn’t have been “privatized.” The state should have just walked away from them, selling the assets to the highest bidder, or turning them over to the workers and managers, and permitting the new owners to do with them whatever they want. In the United States, public schools and Social Security shouldn’t be privatized; they should be abandoned and full freedom permitted to take their place. In other words, market institutions shouldn’t be used as a tool of “public policy;” they should be the de facto reality in a society of freedom.

One objection to my thesis is that partial measures at least take us in the right direction. It’s true that even a partially free system is better than a fully socialist one. And yet, partial victories are unstable. They easily fall back into full statism. With US schools and pensions, these privatization schemes could actually make the present system less free by insisting on new spending to cover new expenses to provide vouchers and private accounts.

In a decade of market-oriented reform, capitalism has been seen as a mechanism that might make it possible for failed sectors to continue to do what they have always done. In truth, free-market reforms are far more fundamental.

Free markets are not just about generating profits and productivity. They aren’t just about spurring innovation and competition. To make a transition from statism to the market economy means a complete revolution in economic and political life, from a system where the state and its interests rule to a system where the power of the state plays no role. Freedom is not a public-policy option. It is the end of public policy itself. It is time for us to take that next step and call for precisely that."