PRESTOPUNDIT -- "It's a team sport, baby!"

Richard Epstein has an interesting little piece on Hayek and Orwell. Epstein's bottom line:

In a sense, the contest is between Hayek the tortoise and Orwell the hare. The hare gets most of the publicity; but in the long-run the tortoise supplies us with a more profound appreciation of what makes the commercial marketplace tick.

Also this:

Hayek was not able to offer any coherent theory of what a sensible government should do, or how it might improve the situation.

Unfortunately, Epstein doesn't go beyond a judgment here. My own is that Hayek offers a great deal on how to improve things (e.g. always make sure government programs have room for competitions of various sorts -- an example Hayek jumped on was the school vouchers idea). My guess is that Epstein is not going so much on actual indepth consideration of Hayek's particular ideas and proposals, but is going instead (mostly) on faded memories of the (mostly mistaken) impressions of a hot-in-the-blood rationalistic libertarian.

When Epstein says the following, he is (in my own well considered judgment) completely off-base:

Instead of explaining what sensible rules might determine the proper scope of government activities, Hayek, especially toward the end of his life, often lapsed into a mystical reverence in which he treated “spontaneous order” created by uncoordinated individuals, usually in commercial trades, as a complete alternative to government action.

This is simply the false "Hayek myth" that seems impossible to kill. Yet it's a sure bet that the easy myth will beat hard thinking and onerous research every time. Can you tell I'm a bit tired of the constant repetitions of Hayek myths like these?

Posted by Greg Ransom