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Politicians have big plans for us.
President Joe Biden repeatedly says, “I have a plan for that.”
“I alone can fix it,” shouted President Donald Trump.
But most of life, and the best of life, happens when politicians butt out and let us make our own choices.
Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou called that “spontaneous order.” Thousands of years later, economist F. A. Hayek added that order comes “not from design, but spontaneously.”
Did you eat a banana this morning? No central planner calculates how many bananas should be grown, who will pick them, when they’ll be harvested, how they’ll be shipped or how many to ship. We get bananas and most everything in life through billions of individuals, planning, cooperating and reacting on their own.
“Think about spontaneous order on a road,” says The Atlas Network’s Tom Palmer.
Right. Millions of people, some of them morons, propel 4,000-pound vehicles at 60 miles per hour, right next to each other. We rarely smash into each other.
There are rules, like “pass on the left,” but for the most part, people navigate highways on their own.
Likewise, no one invented language, but the world has thousands. “Experts” tried to invent better ones, like Volapuk and Esperanto, which supposedly would let us communicate better.
“No one speaks these languages,” says Palmer, because language evolves spontaneously. “That is always superior to top-down systems that rely on the information in one brain.”
Amazingly, my town, New York City, has twice now allowed spontaneous order that makes my life much better.
City government once managed Central Park. When it did, trash was everywhere, and most of the grass was dead.
The city then agreed to let a private nonprofit, the Central Park Conservancy, manage most of the park. Without a government plan, people came together, giving money and time to turn the park around. (Disclosure: I was one of them, and now I’m a conservancy director.)
Now Central Park is beautiful. Forty million people spend time there every year. Despite the crowds, the park works well, without strict government rules.
Musicians play music, asking for donations. There are many of them, but on their own, they figure out how to stay far enough away from each other.
Skate dancers spontaneously chose a spot where they meet to skate. Hundreds gather and dance to music. No one tells them where or how fast to skate. No one says, “Go left, go right.”
“You just skate with the flow of the music,” one skater says in my new video.
I play volleyball in Central Park. There’s no volleyball boss. People just show up and play.
Pickup basketball is famous for that. Players know the rules, otherwise there wouldn’t be a game, but who gets to play, and the playing, is spontaneous.
Central Park is filled with walkers, runners, skateboarders, bikers, pedicabs and horse-drawn carriages. But there are no traffic cops. People maneuver around each other on their own.
There are some rules. You can’t drive a car in the park. You can’t play soccer on grass right after it rains. But rules are minimal.
Police usually ignore lawbreaking. Unlicensed vendors sell water and fruit. Some people drink alcohol. But as long as they don’t bother anyone, police and park workers leave them alone.
Government that governs less, governs best.
Politicians usually want to control more things. My town has been the worst example of that. Progressive politicians add so many rules they make it nearly impossible to do anything new.
Own a restaurant and want to put some tables outdoors? Restaurant owner Jeremy Wladis says he needed permission from 11 agencies. “You had to get a lawyer, get an architect. It literally takes a year!”
But during Covid, something amazing happened. Politicians actually loosened the outdoor table rule. Restaurants quickly opened outdoor seating in sheds on the street.
It’s great. The streets around my apartment feel safer now because at night, they are alive with people.
“We need flexibility to allow people to experiment,” says Palmer.
Freedom to experiment brings the best in life.
More politicians should learn from Central Park and, amazingly, from politicians in New York City who actually let go a little.
”’Did you eat a banana this morning? No central planner calculates how many bananas should be grown, who will pick them, when they’ll be harvested, how they’ll be shipped or how many to ship. We get bananas and most everything in life through billions of individuals, planning, cooperating and reacting on their own.”
Fine article, but this guy does not know bananas about bananas. Any fruit that is as perishable as bananas has considerable math and calculation involved in getting it to your table. Watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, on and on. Good luck with spontaneity.
“No central planner calculates…”
Perhaps “spontaneous” is unfortunately a misleading word to pick to describe the Free Market, as unfortunately misleading as Adam Smith’s metaphor of the “invisible hand”.
“Spontaneity” in this context means the freedom of individuals in the banana industry in a free market to be free to think, calculate, and act on their own judgement, free from the coercion of the ignorant dictators of central planning like Hillary, Biden, and Obama.
Yes, we definitely needed a comment from you on this. Maybe you should have come up with the visible hand.
What, no PhD?
Don’t you know the hierarchy of college degrees? B.S. is just as you might expect 💩, M.S. is more of the same and Ph.D. is piled higher and deeper. That should explain a lot about the “experts.”
Central planner, not a plantation owner nor a procurer of perishable goods. Did that obscure the Point? Guess so.
The point was not missed. What some missed is in his attempt to make the point, he over simplified by far the process of agriculture. He made an error to make a point, thats what leftist do, (of coarse the left does it on purpose) but,the right should do better.
Mike Bloomberg making obvious he is a one trick pony… “It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that. ”
That comment gained him an incredible following.
Bidens Plans just the plans for the typical socialists ideas from the left Biden wants to be Americas 3rd Dictator right behind Clinton(Bill)and Obama
“But during Covid, something amazing happened. Politicians actually loosened the outdoor table rule. Restaurants quickly opened outdoor seating in sheds on the street.”
Individual rights can only be implemented through private property rights. All property except for government buildings and military areas would be privately owned in a free society. In a free society sidewalks, streets, and highways would be privately owned.
Owing to the fact that clean, clear, safe, and open sidewalks generally speaking would produce more profit than sidewalks crowded with sheds, tables, and chairs most of the time, most sidewalks, would be kept clean, clear, safe, and open for pedestrians by the self-interest of the profit motive.
I remember being at Rockefeller Center one night sitting on one of its benches and I had a such pain in my back that I decided to lie down and stretch my back for just a moment on that bench, a security guard immediately sprang over to me, startling me, and commanded me to sit up straight, or he would escort me off the premises, no lying down allowed. I will admit that at first, I felt annoyed and imposed upon until I realized that the security guard was right, Rockefeller Center was not my private property to do as I please. That’s how private property that is open to the public should and would work in a fully free society.
“The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.” – Ayn Rand
Well, now we know where you live. That explains a lot. Typical snotty know-it-all New Yorker.
I’d rather live in a pit of Hell than anywhere in New York, It’s the prototypical shithole.
I thought NY was the pit of Hell.
Who is more likely to be visiting Rockefeller Center at the end of a long day with an aching back, someone who lives in NYC, or a tourist walking all day? You’re not the brightest bulb in the box Sherlock.