I’ve already given my opinion about the gas tax holiday that’s supported by both Hillary Clinton and John McCain—I think it’s perverse. Posting at length on the subject would be a bit redundant but this:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But can you name an economist who thinks this makes sense?
CLINTON: Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m not going to put my lot in with economists, because I know if we get it right, if we actually did it right, if we had a president who used all the tools of the presidency, we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.
caught my eye because it illustrates the problem that I have with technocrats so perfectly.
Both Hillary Clinton (see here, here, and here) and Barack Obama (see here, here, and here) are frequently referred to as “technocrats”. Technocracy is government by experts and it’s not a new idea.
The clearest example of technocracy I can think of was in traditional Hawaii. The craft kahuna did not only have monopolies on their individual crafts, they were thought to have divine patents on them. In Medieval Europe the guilds controlled not only how things were done in their area of expertise but who could do it, limiting their own membership. We have our own craft guilds, the most notable being the practice of medicine whose members have substantial control over what practices are allowed and who’s allowed to do it.
It’s a superficially appealing notion but there are several problems with it. First, there’s an intrinsic conflict of interest with members of the guild controlling their membership and having a monopoly on the field. The natural inclination is to limit membership to keep wages high and all guilds succumb to the temptation. The second problem is that it’s inherently conservative, clinging to established practices even when newer methods are demonstrably better. Look at the problems that the chemist Louis Pasteur had with the physicians of his time.
And finally, at least our modern crop of technocrats aren’t really technocrats had all. They’re leveraging their expertise in a particular field into control of everything. Technocracy is merely another name for oligarchy. IMO Hillary Clinton isn’t a technocrat. If she were, she’d bow to the opinions of the experts. What she is is an autocrat.
