Free Markets Under Siege

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I've been kind of a Richard Epstein fanboy since I read his work on eminent domain, Takings, years back. (Then-Senator Joe Biden theatrically held up a copy of Takings during Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearings in 1991, warning him that anyone who took the book's libertarian arguments seriously couldn't be qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.)

So anyway: I won one of the trivia contests that Drew Cline used to have at his blog, and picked up this book as a result. It's short, around a hundred pages including index, and the pages are tiny too (roughly 7 x 4 inches). But (truth be told) it's a surprisingly tough read.

It's based on a lecture Epstein gave in England in 2003. Since Communism is more or less defunct these days, and doctrinaire socialism isn't looking too hot either, Epstein considers the prime ideological conflict to be the forces of competition vs. those of protectionism. He outlines the ways that—obviously, to me, and probably you too—competition is a far superior road to travel for any modern economy. Unfortunately, protectionism in all its guises is a pretty hefty opponent.

The relevance of this conflict has become even greater since the lecture. Irony alert: in President Obama's State of the Union address, "compete" appears five times, "competition" thrice, "competitive" once. Obviously he knows the appeal of the concept, even if he's operating out of the protectionist playbook himself.

Epstein looks at how the competition/protectionism conflict has been waged in the fields of labor and agriculture. To put it politely, it's not the most page-turning reading.

Bottom line: it's not bad, but there are not a lot of surprises or insights. I would recommend that Epstein fans, and those who want an introduction to his thought, look elsewhere. For example, here's a recent interview from Reason magazine.


Last Modified 2024-01-28 2:46 PM EDT