Using Medicare as the backdrop in a recent post, Matthew Yglesias claims that the difference between an economy based on markets and competition and an economy that is centrally planned (of the sort that Obama desires) is “superficial.” According to Yglesias, both types of economy are “centrally planned.” So Yglesias is telling us here, in an example reminiscent of Orwellian mind control, that decentralization = centralization; no doubt he dreams that his formulation will take its place beside the FREEDOM IS SLAVERY and WAR IS PEACE inconsistencies that permeate Orwell’s 1984. Maybe his next post will explain how 2+2=5.

Most people (liberals and conservatives alike) prefer to live in a society that produces the greatest prosperity for the greatest number of people. Of course, the difference between liberals and conservatives is that  liberals favor the centralized, authoritarian approach that accompanies central planning whereas conservatives believe that a free society based upon markets and competition is the best way to organize society. The majority of American voters tend to think that a free market approach is preferable. Perhaps a desire to eliminate such distinctions and thereby confuse matters explains Yglesias’s bizarre attempt to equate central planning with free markets. Liberals are desperate indeed.