Josh Hypes | Collegian
From the Green New Deal to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, government overreach has increased exponentially over the past year, former Hillsdale College Professor of Economics Richard Ebeling said in a lecture sponsored by Praxis on Oct. 28.
He said America is at a breaking point.
“America is in the grip of a serious counter revolution against the ideas and ideals on which this country was founded,” Ebeling said. “Whether it concerns fears about the physical environment, or frustrations with the domestic economy, or charges of society-wide systemic racism.”
The government caused the economic recession in 2020 due to various interventions such as lockdowns and shutdowns, causing a slowdown in production, employment, shopping, traveling, and the subsequent recovery, Ebeling said. He added that government regulations and price controls have restrained the exchange of goods and services.
The government has begun regulating every form of human association under what he called a “new brand of racism” to address systematic racism, Ebeling said.
“Governments must determine the social and the financial justice for every politically designated and categorized racial, ethnic, gender and social group in the country,” he said.
Ebeling said before World War II and the Cold War, America avoided falling into a collectivist system by preserving property rights and other institutions necessary for a free society. Yet today, the proponents of the Green New Deal and identity politics argue that central planning is essential to create a climate-friendly and socially-just society, he said.
He said the similarities between today’s activists and the 20th-century advocates for socialism are startling.
“There was no reason why government control and direction of the economy was inconsistent with the preservation of freedom of speech, of press, religion, assembling and free association,” Ebeling said. “A significant difference with our modern collectivists which identifies with identity politics, systemic race theory, and cancel culture is the wide absence of any references to or calls for personal freedom or civil liberties in the Western tradition.”
Already this ideology has taken root in corporations which argue a climate-friendly approach to business keeps them accountable to both stockholders and stakeholders, Ebeling said.
He said placing control over the economy of the means of production into the exclusive hands of the government would mean the end of personal freedoms. Critical Race Theory, a theory that argues society is dictated by white supremacist societal constructs which oppress minorities, removes individual autonomy and places decision-making powers in the hands of the central planners.
“In a society of privilege and favoritism, power and hope, ideological pressures, the voting bloc influences will determine and decide what any individual may or may not earn,” Ebeling said.
Ebeling said free market values would diminish, leading to the disappearance of the common good, which Ebeling defines as “the best fulfillment” of consumer demand in the least costly way of supplying them.
Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic said Ebeling’s lecture touched on the government’s massive power grab during the lockdown.
“The government shut huge parts of the economy down, forcing many people to lose their jobs and stay at home,” Pongracic said. “This is really Orwellian, nobody thought this could happen two years ago.”
Junior and Praxis Secretary Alex Cline said Praxis brought his expertise on Ludwig Von Mises’s economic thought, the Austrian school of economics, and the socialist calculation into his lecture.
“Ebeling is a noted authority on the socialist calculation and the Austrian school of economics,” Cline said. “We had a good connection with Ebeling since he was a professor here in the early 2000s and we had it on good authority he would be a solid speaker.”