Statism is growing in Idaho. The Legislature should do much less | Opinion

It’s been a busy session in the Idaho Legislature. Too busy.

The governor received a highly contested budget bill, with planned expenditure reductions for a number of different social services. Meanwhile, the legislature continues arguing over bathroom regulations.

Unfortunately, the debates in downtown Boise are not just a matter of political and cultural disagreement. The current session reflects the continuous growth in statism — that is, an expanded role for government in our economic and social lives.

Economists warned us years ago that such controversies would rise as society asked for more from the state.

In his 1964 work “Anything That’s Peaceful,” Leonard E. Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, observed that many Americans justified government expansion at the time because it coincided with rising material prosperity. The postwar economy was doing well even though government spending was rising faster.

The problem was, and is today, a confusion of correlation with causation. As many others have, Read demonstrated how our standard of living rises because of creative human action in the marketplace, not because of political action. The natural state of affairs is a free market, or the absence of coercion. Allowing individuals to pursue “anything that’s peaceful” creates wealth. To facilitate that, the government needs only to protect life, liberty and property.

Read further warned that when we reject voluntary exchange in the marketplace and look to the state to produce desired social outcomes, we weaken the very habits of self-reliance and cooperation that made our prosperity possible. By “outsourcing” our moral responsibility to the state, we no longer look for ways to serve our neighbors through trade but instead look for ways to use the state to gain an advantage over them.

This shift from economics to politics does not lead to social harmony. It turns the political arena into a contentious struggle where competing groups vie for control over the redistributive power of government.

As the federal government and the Idaho legislature take on larger roles in our lives, disagreements we once handled privately or locally become high-stakes political conflicts. Government expansion by spending or regulation changes incentives. Rather than engaging in productive activity, we are encouraged to seek advantages through political struggle, making society more contentious.

To bring about peace, let’s consider again the proper role of government: the protection of our lives, our liberty, and our pursuit of happiness. Limiting government in this manner forces us to resolve our differences through peaceful and voluntary means.

The Legislature needn’t be so busy.

Peter Crabb is a professor of economics and the director of the Center for the Study of Market Alternatives at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa.