Quote 29 from Sowell's "A Conflict of Visions"

Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles lays out the approach of the constrained vision:

... The constrained vision does not defend existing inequalities, or any given pattern of economic or social results, as just. According to Hayek, "the manner in which the benefits and burdens are apportioned by the market mechanism would in many instances have to be regarded as very unjust if it were the result of a deliberate allocation to particular people." [pg. 139]

This is starting to get to the heart of the matter: the constrained think inequality is unjust only if it is deliberate, while those with the unconstrained vision think it is just to do something deliberate regarding inequality. No wonder they don't agree.

Comments

[Kabod]

You can also build a huge military, tax elursyof to death when facing no real military enemies.Every federal bureaucracy wants to grow and thrive--and they dream up reasons for doing so,That's how we end up with a huge Department of Agriculture 80 years after the Dust Bowl. $100 billion budget and we are a nation of fatties. $60 billion a year in direct subsidies to farmers. It is a massive bailout, every year, dwarfing Detroit's one-time money grab. Gee, do you suppose Sowell ever mentions that?The Defense Department? Permanently mobilized to fight two wars simultaneously, and keep global shipping lanes open. Yeah, so many nations want to close the shipping lanes. This is the number: 0.Odd, how "conservatives" never mention these huge swipes of taxpayer money. These are agencies that want your money, that you earned so they can have salaries and pensions--often after a career of just 20 years.No one in the private sector gets squat after 20 years. Fat and ossified lard and patronage.

[Dave Tufte]

Actually, Sowell says quite a bit about this ... just in other books.