More about the Worrying Classes

I wrote recently about the worrying classes. Worriers are the many among us who cannot be convinced that people would be better off with less regulation, with private Social Security accounts, with even fewer restraints on international trade, and on, and on. Worriers seem incapable of envisioning the greater good that economic freedom brings to most people. There are several worrying classes.

In my previous post I wrote about the the jabberers. They are the denizens of Capitol Hill, the media, universities, and so-called knowledge professions whose main task is to promote the worriers' agenda.

The other worrying classes are the activists, the entrenched, the "engineers", and the romantics. Activists are represented by such organizations as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and other irresponsibly luddite groups. Then there are all the groups that represent outraged feminists, homosexuals, persons of color, and their sympathizers. To top it off, there are the groups that want to spend your tax dollars for their pet diseases and disabilities.

The entrenched class includes labor unions, regulated industries, and various professions (notably medicine and law). They promote laws and regulations to shelter themselves from competition by playing on the fears of the worrying masses.

"Engineers" are those physical and social scientists who try to out-think free markets. They're smarter than the rest of us, you see.

Romantics simply want a better world. Their tenuous grasp of reality causes them to believe in peace through surrender and prosperity through socialism. Many of them are activists. Those who are not activists constitute a large fraction of the worrying masses -- those who lend their votes, money, and sympathy to the worrying classes.