Don’t Dis Crony Capitalism, Sniffs Bruce Bartlett
March 11, 2014 in Economics
By Ryan McMaken
Bruce Bartlett, who’s almost twice my age, and apparently had some sort of “important” job back when I was in grade school, says I’m “living in the past” for talking about the transcontinental railroad:
Ron Paul's favorite website attacks the transcontinental railroad. Way to stay relevant, guys. http://t.co/dykGcDh2Nb
— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) March 11, 2014
@BruceBartlett @delong The 19th century railroads were the original 2Big2Fail corp-welfare monsters. Is it so awful to say so, Bruce?
— Chris Faille (@ccfaille) March 11, 2014
@ccfaille If you like living in the past, think no current issues are worth bothering with.
— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) March 11, 2014
Wow. This is a guy who calls himself a historian. I guess that fact that Obama and other pols still invoke the railroads as a justification for modern infrastructure projects escapes Bartlett. Or perhaps he’s just mad that someone would point out that it’s a bad thing to steal from the taxpayers and give to politically-well-connected corporations.
Or he may just be still on his anti-Mises Institute/anti Lew Rockwell crusade, which recently included his nutty about Peter Klein’s article on budget default.
Also, Bruce, don’t look now, but there’s a whole teevee show about the transcontinental railroad on AMC right now called Hell on Wheels, It’s actually quite popular, and a fourth season is likely. And even though a popular television show would never, ever have any effect on modern ideologies or modern politics, I’m going to review it for Mises Daily. I look forward to reading your tweets about it.
Source: MISES INSTITUTE
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