Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending a reception at the Reason Foundation in Washington, DC. The occasion was to celebrate the recent release of John Stossel’s latest book, No, They Can’t: Why Government Fails—But Individuals Succeed. John Stossel was an anchor on ABC for two decades and now, in addition to writing books, hosts the Fox Business show Stossel, which covers many topics dealing with liberty. The evening rounded out with a talk, Q&A period, and book signing. The event was part of a series of stops in the DC and Maryland areas.
As Matt Welch, Reason’s editor in chief, welcomed the enthusiastic crowd, Stossel took his seat and raised a white sign displaying the words “NO THEY CAN’T.” You may recognize that the title is a play on Barack Obama’s campaign slogan “Yes, we can!” from the election of 2008. Like this chant, a number of ideas have held wide appeal among many people in our country. The ideas are so prominent in the public discourse that, for some people, the concepts are intuitive and perhaps even sacred to some. Stossel says these intuitive ideas are of the sort that we should leave behind.
I agree but would prefer to use the word “intuitive” with the quotation marks. A dear Jesuit professor at my alma mater, the University of Virginia, would often say that people have been greatly misinformed over the years. He said many grave errors have been committed because people have short memories and end up falling into the same disastrous mistakes as their predecessors.
Stossel makes his skepticism of these ideas fairly clear in referring to them as “superstitions.” According to him, “[t]he worst superstition—the most socially destructive of all—is the intuitively appealing belief that when there is a problem, government action is the best way to solve it.” (1)
When there is a problem or a crisis at hand, people want to look to government to fix things instead of relying on their own devices. Anyone can list a number of recent crises that government has been trying to fix for years, such as unemployment, spending, bailouts, healthcare, and so on. Stossel argues that individuals and the market are more effective at finding better solutions than government ever could.
Following a format similar to Stossel’s TV segment Lies, Myths, and Downright Stupidity and other news segments, he engages the reader right away with his chapter sections. They are marked off by throwing two points in rapid succession to us. First comes “What intuition tempts us to believe,” which is followed immediately by the point “What reality taught me.” They serve as a guide for helping us to retrain ourselves in our economic and public policy thought processes.
John Stossel’s No, They Can’t: Why Government Fails—But Individuals Succeed is a welcome addition to any reader’s bookshelf. His book joins a resurgence of books addressing the misconception that government can figure out everything we need and create a utopian society. Mark Levin’s Ameritopia, one such recent book, topped the New York Times Bestsellers earlier this year. It would be unsurprising if Mr. Stossel’s book also makes an impact on readers across the nation ready for real solutions.
About Pat Cuadros
