Oct 16 2009
FEE, the Free Market, State Capitalism and Michael Moore
Frustrating Michael Moore | Foundation for Economic Education
If Michael Moore would study a little political economy he might turn into a potent champion of individual liberty.
I don’t usually have time on Fridays to click through and read the latest TGIF article from FEE. FEE (for those who aren’t long time readers) is the Foundation for Economic Education. They’re a group of Austrian school economists who are trying to spread, without profit to themselves, information defending a true free market. They’re responsible for the translation of Bastiat into English. TGIF is the Friday play on acronyms that stands (for FEE) for The Goal Is Freedom. Today I had a few minutes and the topic looked interesting (Michael Moore’s new film) and so I clicked through.
What I found was not the usual Moore bashing hateful rhetoric that many might be used to seeing from some of his opponents, nor even the uncharitable assumptions that Moore is stupid or anti-american. No, this article treats Moore with more charity than many think he may deserve, and takes his film as an opportunity to describe the eventual results of what Moore is advocating, and describe how our current corrupt system is not the free market.
And that’s the greatness of this article, which won’t take long to read, it’s that it shows in stark terms the difference between a free market and pro-business, and it does so while agreeing with some of what Moore rails against. Any longer here and I’ll do the article disservice–so go read it and I’ll shut up.
