The Political Left and the Political Right Should Pay Attention to This Wisdom

David Brooks hits it out of the park with his latest editorial. The political left and right should listen, but I doubt that they will. They have too much power and pork to give up for the common good.

Referring to British writer, Philip Blond, Brooks writes,

"Economically, Blond lays out three big areas of reform: remoralize the market, relocalize the economy and recapitalize the poor. This would mean passing zoning legislation to give small shopkeepers a shot against the retail giants, reducing barriers to entry for new businesses, revitalizing local banks, encouraging employee share ownership, setting up local capital funds so community associations could invest in local enterprises, rewarding savings, cutting regulations that socialize risk and privatize profit, and reducing the subsidies that flow from big government and big business."

"To create a civil state, Blond would reduce the power of senior government officials and widen the discretion of front-line civil servants, the people actually working in neighborhoods. He would decentralize power, giving more budget authority to the smallest units of government. He would funnel more services through charities. He would increase investments in infrastructure, so that more places could be vibrant economic hubs. He would rebuild the 'village college' so that universities would be more intertwined with the towns around them."

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And my favorite line in the article: "The welfare state and the market state are now two defunct and mutually supporting failures."

You can read the entire editorial here.

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HT: Scot McKnight