A Time for Truth, by William B. Simon
Force, J. Clayburn La
"A Time for Truth, by William B. Simon" alleged to justify the theories he opposes—and proceeds to demolish them. Equally crucial, he devotes ten meager pages out of four hundred to tell us "Why the Original Intention?" and his reasoning...
...It would be "utterly unrealistic and probably impossible to undo the past in the face of the expectations that the segregation decisions, for example, have aroused in our black citizenry—expectations confirmed by every decent instinct...
...businessmen] are almost entirely at the mercy of an economic police state buried in the very heart of American government...
...And an 18th-century textbook which states this rule proves that the framers agreed...
...4)...an abyss of government debt piled on debt....(5)...a commitment to a vast network of lifelong pensions to government employees and others in the middle-class populace...
...From his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury, Simon provides more evidence to show how government intervention is undermining our economy and social structure, again laying out the unsavory dynamics: The government runs a large deficit to finance schemes for redistributing wealth from producers to non-producers...
...The philosophy, the illusions, the pretentioris, and the rationalizations which guide New York City are those which guide the entire country...
...Literal interpretation, we are told, is the best method of preventing tyranny and maintaining stable government...
...In Simon's view, what distinguishes capitalism from planned economies is, among other things, its complexity...
...Almost in passing, Berger admits this need for some type of moral or pragmatic justification...
...There is nothing else quite like it on the American scene...
...But as Simon condemns the bureaucracy for its authoritarian behavior, so he also scorches the business community for seeking special privileges from government and then failing to defend itself when attacked by that same government: "The one crime of businessmen as a group...
...Rather than a plethora of technocratic manipulations at the margin, what is required is a set of "broad guiding principles" which, if adopted, will enable capitalism to flourish by reducing the coercive influence of the state...
...What Simon describes is a "disaster in microcosm"—a preview of what potentially is in store for the nation: If New York were a discrete political entity, disconnected from America and committing suicide in a unique way, it would be sad but not frightening...
...Using incomprehensible and contradictory rules, these bureaucrats simultaneously function as investigators, detectives, policemen, prosecutors, judges, and juries...
...And it is commonplace that they hold businessmen guilty until proved innocent...
...Simon illustrates, by describing his experiences as energy czar, the dynamics of this process: Government gains control of production and causes artificial shortages, which create economic and political crises that "require" more government control...
...Berger believes that by destroying the myth that the Court has merely acted to expound pre-existing law and by revealing its value-laden decisionmaking, its ways can be mended and the myth made a reality...
...This is just what the inquiry must be...
...3)...the tax burden growing steadily to finance the redistribution process...
...But how does one overcome the fact that the dominant voice of the intellectuals is openly hostile to capitalism, indeed has spearheaded the successful strike force against it...
...Indeed, the economic interconnections among individuals and organizations, skills, knowledge, and products are beyond any individual's comprehension, let alone control...
...The growth in the size and power of the federal judiciary is in part a response to the growth in the other branches of government...
...Berger never seems to recognize the enormous differences among statute, will, and constitution, in terms of the objects and numbers of people affected and the time period in which the document is to function...
...Rather, it is a sophisticated and reasoned analysis of how governmental interference is throttling our largely decentralized, private property-based econJ. Clayburn La Force is Dean of the Graduate School of Management at UCLA...
...In an enlightening and personal chapter, he describes the reasons for the collapse, and its aftermath, as well as his role in attempting to resolve the political and financial dilemmas it created...
...and his reasoning in that chapter is frustrating...
...As destructive as the financial malfeasance of government is, however, it lacks the pervasiveness of the new regulation...
...Though written with an urgency born of his extensive experience in the Nixon and Ford administrations, this is no simple diatribe against "Big Government...
...In contrast, American capitalism permits a relatively rich existence—and a degree of individual liberty unmatched by any other economic system...
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...As a result, "the American political language has become paralyzed by those conflicting assignments...
...Moreover, argues Simon, ours is not a deliberately constructed system, but a "spontaneous" social order that hasevolved over centuries...
...and over the years, the decisions of the Court have not favored any one ideological position...
...If the destructive dynamics of government intervention are to be halted, what must we do...
...Berger's approach would benefit those branches of government or forces in society currently counterposed to the Court's power...
...More importantly, structural reasons which did not exist in 1789 or 1866 now support a judiciary which is activist on certain fronts...
...It is its final, and possibly its worst, betrayal of the free enterprise system...
...Berger would impose on us a governmental automatism—"value-free" decisionmaking in which the answers to today's questions are found in the historical record...
...omy and, in consequence, endangering our political and economic freedoms...
...To follow Berger's reasoning, however, there is no room in constitutional adjudication for decency or any thought of the social implications of a decision...
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...The fact that such literalism has never been the rule should cast doubt upon whether it could ever be implemented...
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...In Simon's words: The single most awe-inspiring thing about our 34 The American Spectator October 1978 economic system lies in what is absent, what is not perceived by the naked eye...
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...Arguably the Constitution has survived because men practical and wise have not neglected the moral and political implications of their decisions...
...It is America's premier city and its intellectual headquarters...
...Yet, although freedom from the "dead hand of the past" is a straw man Berger often rails at, the common law itself provided elaborate rules to limit the time after death during which an individual may control the disposition and use of his property...
...BOOK REVIEW A Time for Truth William E. Simon / Reader's Digest Press / $12.50 J . Clayburn La Force An instant best-seller, this book by former Treasury Secretary William Simon delivers a message of grave importance to the American public: We are losing our individual liberties to a newly-emerging authoritarian state...
...Man can indeed "create" an economic system, but because of his intellectual limitations it would be a nightmare of centralization providing a stark and tyrannical social and economic existence...
...In these ways they replicate the, operating principles of totalitarian "justice...
...What is happening to New York, therefore, is overwhelmingly important to all Americans...
...The enormous growth of other branches of government should raise some doubt as to whether liberty is best served by extending the protections of the Constitution only to those objects specifically referred to by the framers in the debates surrounding enactment...
...inflation creates political crises and government "comes to the rescue" with wage and price controls...
...Yet he curiously refuses to reverse the leading decisions of the past thirty years, thereby making a judgment about morality or political wisdom which overrides his constitutional autopilot...
...While Secretary of the Treasury, Simon was thrust into the maelstrom created by the financial collapse of New York City...
...Far better than starting the charade again, let us thank Berger and enter freely into the debate over values...
...They uphold the ideals of the mixed economy, "of the free market and a planned economy, of individual liberty from government coercion and government control over individual life...
...The political leaders in the United States have become convinced that government is able to, conduct and control economic activity better than the prices of competitive markets...
...Neither judiciary, legislature, nor executive have ever followed Berger's literalist approach to the Constitution...
...That is the true defense of capitalism...
...They often apply their rulings retroactively...
...More importantly, the analogy is irrelevant...
...The capitalist miracle occurred in the United States, the politically freest nation in the world, precisely because this explosion of wealth is uniquely a result of individual liberty...
...But this proves only that original intent is so difficult to ascertain as to be of little use (true in many cases), or that the Court continues to disguise what it is really doing...
...Quoting Edmund Burke" All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"—Simon sets forth his prescription in his final chapter, "The Road to Liberty...
...It would be far beyond the capabilities of the human mind to "create" the free enterprise economy by putting individual men and women in their places and instructing each what to do and when to do it...
...But that very system, which has allowed the highest standard of living in history, is now threatened with extinction...
...The Court is today the last bulwark of the federal system and defender of the rightful prerogatives of citizens acting through their state governments and courts, in an age when "matching grants" and federal welfare turn states and people into dependent clients of federal regulators...
...As Robert Cover has written, the method of interpretation we choose constitutes a judgment about our political present and future and about alternative theories of judicial activity which will best serve it....It is for us, not the framers, to decide whether the end of liberty is best served by entrusting to judges a major role in defining our governing political ideas and in measuring the activity of the primary actors in majoritarian politics against that ideology...
...Persistently attacked by a new brand ofegalitarians, inadequately defended by businessmen, and generally misunderstood by the public, capitalism is falling victim to government: ...we see: (1)...the arbitrary assaults on business and the slow destruction of our productive system ....(2)...the redistribution of increasing amounts of wealth to a combined clientele of the acutely needy and a growing portion of the middle class...
...and that in many controversies both sides claim to uphold it...
...Let us hope that his own powerful voice is soon joined by others of equal conviction...
...The taxing, borrowing, and spending activities of our leadership are impersonal and distant in contrast to the intrusive operations of the "regulators...
...The American Spectator is a lively, provocative, and intelligent magazine which I read faithfully...
...In either case, a frank recognition and acceptance of the Court's implementation of values is as likely a remedy as is a renewed search for intent...
...Next Berger tells us that "effectuation of the draftsman's intention is a longstanding rule of interpretation in the construction of all documents—wills, contracts, statutes...
...It is the fact that the flood of wealth emerges from the lack of any direction of the economic process, from the lack of government control, from the lack of state-imposed or "national" purposes and goals...
...Simon argues that an opposing "counterintelligentsia" must be created to formulate the requisite guiding principles...
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...Collectivism, planning, governmental coercion are slowly coming to dominate our leadership with disastrous consequences for our standard of living and our tradition of personal freedom...
...to finance those deficits, the government creates new money rather than raise taxes...
...And Watergate reminds us of the role of the Court in restraining an increasingly powerful executive...
...Yet no matter how much we, like our chastened Court, may protest our obedience to the framers, our decision to adopt Berger's approach would be a decision by the current generation to favor certain values over others...
...But it is frightening, for New York is not disconnected from America...
...Before adopting his approach, and overturning our long-standing practices, we may rightfully demand an explanation of the advantages to society of having adopted it a century or thirty years ago...
...We see something eerily similar to the fiscal pattern of New York City...
...inflation is a direct consequence, but the government diverts attention from its actions by blaming the greed of corporations and unions...
...which I condemn profoundly, is that business, on the whole, has been gripped by cowardly silence in the face of this consistent violation of its liberties and interests...
...Compared to the simple structure of the centrally-planned economy, ours is so complex as to be downright mysterious...
...We are told that the Court itself has never abandoned its insistence upon original intention...
Vol. 11 • October 1978 • No. 10
