In this comprehensive work, the author provides a powerful argument for the superiority and surprising vulnerability of the free market and the “extended order”, with a message that is at once disturbing but ultimately hopeful and even inspiring.
Bayrer’s analysis combines a lucid discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of the free market and the “extended order”, highlighting the work of Adam Smith, Friedrich von Hayek, and James Buchanan, with real-world examples of their application and, as important, their violation. These constitute the fabled golden egg, capable of creating open-ended wealth for entire societies. But it comes with a fragile shell, requiring constant protection from the ever-circling predators who would destroy it to seize its contents.
Unfortunately, the greatest threat comes from the instrument most essential to that protection: the government. The potential misuse of political power for personal, political, or ideological advantage is inherent in every society, from autocracies to liberal democracies. But the answer is not to be found in the ascent of incorruptible and wise leaders. History is a long recitation of proof that political power will inevitably be misused, including by individuals and groups pledging “reforms”. Unfortunately, regardless of the motives of those wielding new powers, greater government activism almost inevitably leads to a weakening of the prerequisites for a free and wealth-creating society, often with enduring costs that undermine the well-being of the inhabitants of that society and even lead to instability and upheaval.
But what may appear to be a gloomy conclusion is in fact an invaluable warning and even a how-to guide for a return to health. While highlighting the threats that no society can escape, Bayrer then counters with clear examples from the real world demonstrating that even the most damaged economies and societies can be repaired and returned to health and with a remarkably small set of straightforward measures. The dramatic turnarounds of New Zealand, Sweden, and Switzerland are the most prominent of several examples he provides, a revival that begins with an honest appraisal of the sources of economic and social malfunction and fixing a clear destination to determine the path forward.
The catch is that governments themselves cannot prevent the misuse of their own power; the responsibility for that falls on the society as a whole. The integrity of the political process is a key element in ensuring a society’s safety and well-being, but of equal importance are clear limits to confine the government’s power to its essential protective role and not become the unconstrained instrument of those with ambitions of their own.
Although the phenomenon and principles that Bayrer describes are timeless and apply to all societies, the book’s main audience is the United States. He methodically demonstrates that the mounting fiscal threat the country faces is not due to a short-term crisis such as war but is instead one result of a far more disturbing and potentially destructive development, one that has been gathering momentum for many decades as the constraints on government at the core of the Constitution have been weakened and eliminated.
For Bayrer, the only way for the United States to stop the race toward the fiscal cliff and deal effectively with other mounting social and political problems now and in the future is by restoring restraints on government as a whole. That does not mean a simple revival of the measures in the original Constitution, which is neither possible nor desirable, but instead the fashioning of new ones with the collective goal and effectiveness of those devised by the Framers. Only then can the growing failure of our political institutions to address pressing problems be reversed and our society’s freedom and prosperity assured.
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