The fundamental economic problem with Biden’s rescue plan

March 31 gave us a statement on the American Jobs Plan, and April 28 saw President Joe Biden speak on it to the American people (well, roughly 8 percent of the American people). The goal of the law is the following:

While the American Rescue Plan is changing the course of the pandemic and delivering relief for working families, this is no time to build back to the way things were. This is the moment to reimagine and rebuild a new economy. The American Jobs Plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and position the United States to outcompete China. Public domestic investment as a share of the economy has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The American Jobs Plan will invest in America in a way we have not invested since we built the interstate highways and won the Space Race.

Article by Antón Chamberlin from Mises.

By increasing government spending, the Biden administration seeks to address infrastructure like highways, ports, and airports, as well as the electrical grid and broadband internet. For a longer list of the goals of the bill, read the full statement here.

This move, of course, will be lauded by many and disputed by others. But it does not seem too much to assume that both sides will miss the main problem with this bill. The Left will adore it for its brave use of the state to improve the lives of Americans, while the Right will abhor the bill since it is not their preferred form of big government spending (how dare we spend perfectly good money on infrastructure that could be used to murder innocent people in the Middle East?). What both sides fail to recognize is the economic reality of any and all state actions, a reality pointed out to us by Murray Rothbard in his 1956 article, “Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics.” In that article, without having to rely on a single ethical judgment, Rothbard concludes the apodictic advantages of the market and the perennial waste of government expenditure.

Rothbard begins his reconstruction with two scientific principles: the unanimity rule and demonstrated preference. In Rothbard’s words, Wilfredo Pareto’s Unanimity Rule (reintroduced by Lionel Robbins) states, “We can only say that ‘social welfare’ (or better, ‘social utility’) has increased [sic] due to a change, if no individual is worse off because of the change (and at least one is better off).”1

Demonstrated preference is the idea that we can only know anything about someone’s value scale by observing actual decisions they make, usually in a market exchange. Any assessment of someone’s words would be psychological in nature and irrelevant for economics. With demonstrated preference, we can say that every voluntary exchange must ex ante apodictically result in an increase in social utility, for every exchange demonstrates a perceived expected benefit for both parties involved. Whenever an exchange is prohibited or mandated by the state, there must, definitionally, be some party that benefits and some party that is harmed, which makes it impossible to make any statement on total social utility given the impossibility of comparing utility interpersonally. Moreover, the presence of a harmed party means these actions violate the unanimity rule. We can confidently conclude, then, that any government interference with exchanges can never be said to increase social utility.

But the analysis does not stop there. All government action ultimately rests on its power to levy taxes. Taxation, though, is nothing more than a coerced exchange between the people and the state. Given this insight, not only can government interference never increase social utility, but no action a government could ever make could increase social utility.

All this leads to the following two conclusions: (1) the free market always increases social utility, and (2) the government can never increase social utility. The main problem with the American Jobs Plan is now clear. It is not the fact that it calls for more spending on infrastructure and promoting supposedly green technology, as opposed to, say, the military. Its problem is that it calls on the state to do anything at all. Biden’s call for increased government action will do nothing more than waste our precious finite resources. There is nothing proactive in the bill that can be said to lead to an increase in social utility, and the restrictions it places on the free market will fail to lead to a more prosperous society as well. The plan is to restrict the free market, the only mechanism capable of promoting the general welfare, and expand the role of the government, an institution that can never promote the general welfare. A job well done, Mr. President.

‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us

Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.

For the last few months, NOQ Report, Conservative Playbook, and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.

It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.

The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.

The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.

There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ, CP, and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are on track to be short by about $4100 per month in order to maintain operations.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.

During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.

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