Back in the 1970s, I was routinely accused of being a member of the “lunatic left”. Perhaps my youthful idealistic enthusiasm for utopian political schemes justified the accusation. This charge referred to the belief that government ownership and control of all key economic institutions in service to the people would counter the negative effects of private for-profit ownership and address all socio-economic problems. This position was largely theoretical and ideological and, over time, most on the left abandoned this extreme position in support of a mixed economy with a balance of market and government, or private and public sectors. The relevant models became the social democratic capitalist societies of Europe that have an expanded social welfare state and institutionalized labor protections such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.
But it is important to note that at no time was this extreme “lunatic left” in a position of political power in the US, or able to exert any significant influence on political-economic policy.
Today, unfortunately, the primary influence on our political-economic policies comes from what I call the “lunatic right”. Rather than viewing the market or private sector as a problem, it is the government or public sector that must be extinguished. And what is most significant is that one of the two major parties responsible for governing the nation, in this case the Republican Party, has become a lunatic right party. Similar to the…