Welcome to Been There, Done That, Shouldn’t Have.

Please try to keep smiling as we delve into economic history to look at instructive disasters we’re liable to repeat today while congratulating ourselves on being bold and new.

What’s to smile about, you ask? Lots of things.

First, we’re going to do economic history, not the sort of “economics” that surrounds you with a swarm of Greek letters buzzing and stinging like angry bees. I’m a historian by training, not a mathematical economist, and I don’t really think equations tell us a whole lot about the human condition. Indeed because I don’t think so.

Second, we’re going to try to learn from those disasters. We’re going to try to learn some sound rules of thumb that have always worked in the past and will work again today. Things like: Incentives matter. And you cannot repeal the laws of economics, especially the Law of Unintended Consequences. And that trusting free people to be creative and honest, with a jail for those who use violence or fraud, will make us prosperous and happy.

Third, we’re going to try to convince people. I’m a historian not a mathematical economist because I believe stories are the right way to understand the past. People organize their lives and their thinking, and their lives within a community, around stories. Stories about heroes and villains in the past. Stories of hopes crushed and of disasters averted. Stories with morals including economic ones about how freedom works and tyranny doesn’t. Fundamentally good news stories.

So, fourth, we should keep smiling because we’re hopeful. We’re trying to win a debate here that we are actually right about. And we’re going to do it by telling good stories. True stories, exciting stories, relevant stories.

Why Stories?

Stories are the right way to persuade people. Who am I? Where do I come from? Where should I be going? These are the kind of fundamental questions that engage people, that get them to listen, to discuss, to think. And the answer in Canada is we are free people.

Our prosperity, dynamism and security come from freedom. And we must resist the siren song of those who say they have found another, better way by seeing what happened to those who listened to such songs in the past.

Important as first principles are, they are rarely effective in persuading a person to change their mind. They help someone who is changing their mind to persevere in doing so, and to understand fully their new view of the world. But the key thing is to tell convincing stories.

In looking at the past, at stories of what has been tried and failed, or worked, we’re not trying to solve the human dilemma to three decimal places. Nor are we trying to crush our foes with statistics. We’re trying to convince people by explaining pleasantly and patiently that we have been here before, we have tried these ideas, and we know they don’t work.

We also know they’re not necessary. Free markets aren’t a matter of devil take the hindmost, darn you Jack I’m all right selfishness. They’re a way of unleashing people’s creativity, letting them pursue their dreams and make lives that mean something to them.

I don’t just mean the great inventors, the Edisons and Jobs and Gates, though markets certainly do that. I mean the people who dream of crafting pottery or running a quaint little inn or making music. Economic freedom, like freedom more generally, isn’t about the rich and powerful. They generally do fine in any system. It’s about regular folks.

Now there will be some dismal moments. We’re hoping to warn people of errors by showing what happened before. Sometimes way before, back to the time when people did write in Greek letters.

Things like Roman Emperor Diocletian’s doomed effort at price control. The Spanish Empire succumbing to a real Midas’ touch. People continually thinking they can solve the problem of poverty by printing money rather than making stuff. Mistakes that really did end badly, especially for ordinary people.

If these weren’t cautionary tales, they wouldn’t be worth telling. And if there were no cautionary tales, policy errors wouldn’t be a significant problem. But they are. And we’re telling them because, as Louis L’Amour once said, it’s a lot more fun to read about scary situations than to experience them.

We’re also going to tell some funny stories. Often about instructive disasters. And we’re going to tell happy stories. It’s not all bad news. It couldn’t be, or we wouldn’t be unimaginably rich by historical and global standards today. We aren’t the first people to try to learn from the past, and the good news is, it has sometimes worked before so it can work again.

This is a newsletter for people who “get” freedom. I’m happy to have anyone read it, including people freedom still needs to “get”. But the fundamental goal here is to help you make the case we know we need to make. To do it persuasively. To be right on fundamentals, armed with useful details, and able to put them forward in a way that wins friends.

Anger rarely convinces people. Scorn and bitterness are even less effective. There is a place for righteous indignation, especially when preaching to the choir. But it can be overdone, and I’m far from perfect on that score.

Bitterness is worse still. Venting your spleen may make you feel good, but it rarely has that effect on anyone else. In fact, it generally convinces an audience that you’re wrong, that you know it, and that you don’t deserve a sympathetic ear.

If you want to vent in private, if you need to, go right ahead. But then remember that we are trying to win friends and influence people.

So please join me. And try to keep smiling. Even when history brings down the curtain on another dismally failed policy, and then some glib politician tries to revive it on the modern stage.

John Robson, 2015

Vol 1, #1
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