Who Pays For Economic Change?
In the American religion there stands no icon more sacred than the “free market,” embodying as it does the belief that Americans must trust in the benevolence of unseen forces to fulfill their destiny of wealth and power. In times of economic unrest, however, when factories close down, workers lose their jobs, and towns become impoverished, the prayers to the mysterious market gods give way to cries of anger and disbelief. In the past few years, various heretical sects have put forward a new faith called “industrial policy.” Its apostles see hideous economic change churning beneath the surface of America’s apparent prosperity. They notice the nation’s rapidly disappearing hegernony in world trade, its declining manufacturing industries, and its dwindling stock of middle-class jobs. To correct these misfortunes they demand tariffs and government rules against plant closings and wholesale layoffs. All these proposals advance the doctrine most feared by believers in the free market-c-gove
