Donald J. Boudreaux Vs. Alan Blinder's On ObamaCare

See ObamaCare: Much More Than Merely a Botched Launch: Mr. Blinder judges ObamaCare by its stated goals. He simply assumes that ObamaCare's results will eventually reflect its designers' intentions. From the WSJ 11-18-13.

"Reading economist Alan Blinder's apologia for ObamaCare makes this economist sad ("Despite a Botched Rollout, the Health-Care Law Is Worth It," op-ed, Nov. 12).

In the 18th century, economics began as a discipline when Adam Smith explained that intentions are not results, and that the complexity of a real-world economy nearly always overwhelms and confounds the hubris-intoxicated "man of system" who aims to improve matters through government intervention.

More than 200 years later, Mr. Blinder judges ObamaCare by its stated goals. He simply assumes that ObamaCare's results will eventually reflect its designers' intentions. And in assuring your readers that this happy outcome will indeed come to pass, Mr. Blinder gives no hint of the mature, Smithian awareness that "men of system" are never up to the task of successfully engineering a sector of the economy as large and as complex as health care.

Prof. Donald J. Boudreaux
George Mason University
Fairfax, Va."