Book review: It’s a Jetsons World
It’s a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes is a collection of essays about the wonders of the free market and the failures of statism written by Jeffrey Tucker.
Mr. Tucker begins by comparing the current world situation to that of the Jetsons cartoon, and finding that despite some differences in the available technologies, the only real difference is that we also have a leviathan state which runs counter to the advancements brought about by voluntary exchange. The rest of the first section, titled “Private Miracles,” explores the dichotomy between voluntary and coercive interactions through various situations and conundrums, from grocery store checkouts to auto-defrosting refrigerators to internet connections.
The second section of the book, “Free Association, Peace, and Plenty,” explores the benefits of voluntary interactions, some of which we overlook and/or take for granted. Several of the examples also make the point that central planning through government coercion could not produce such benefits, as Mises once proposed with the economic calculation problem.
“Work for Free,” the third section of the book, speaks mostly about the functionality of the free market and how it can adapt to various situations and problems. It is here that Tucker’s wisdom truly shows, for he is able to debunk with counterexamples the claims of anti-free market theorists that voluntary exchange has no way of dealing with heartless people, criminals, or uncertainties in the medium of exchange. He also shows through the examples of the decline of the U.S. piano industry and the relief efforts following the Haitian earthquake that economic interventions tend to hurt the very people they are supposed to help.
The next section of the book, “Can Ideas Be Owned?,” is a collection of arguments against patents, copyrights, and other forms of “intellectual property.” Tucker shows through examples of agricultural and pharmaceutical patents, as well as book, music, and movie copyrights, that monopolizing knowledge serves to restrict knowledge and hold back progress. A large part of the section is a favorable book review of Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David Levine.
Tucker concludes with a section on “Public Crimes,” which delves into the true nature of government laws and regulations and their ill effects on civilization. He also turns his attention to the difference between capitalism and corporatism, as well as the coercive nature of government-run military defense. The last subsection returns to the Jetsons theme, discussing a particular episode that presents a credible case for how even the remains of the state that may still be with us in the future will be relatively harmless and even comical compared to the monstrosities of the present day.
While the book does not go into extensive detail on free market economic theories, it presents a message of liberty in a fun, lighthearted manner that is ideal for a person curious about libertarian ideas.
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