[Theophilus]

Mann was the prototype of today's elitist liberal do-gooder. The temperance movement was an abominable failure culminating in prohibition. And our American society which brought together the best elements of culture from thousands of years of careful cultivation in the civilizations of our forefathers, the envy of the world (read: de Tocqueville), got turned on it's head by these nasty little dead guys who just knew they knew better how to raise our kids. After all, the common man is a noble savage/primate who needs help.

Markets fail to provide public goods, and that is what the governments are supposed to do

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." - I dunno, nothing about the providing "public goods" here.

After all I've shown, if you deny that Mann was:

• a humanist
• a socialist
• a progressive
• a neo-liberal
• an elitist
• a statist
• an idealogue
• an utopian
• a pedant
• and a busybody

you're either in denial or you are merely gainsaying my statements of fact.

[TopQuark]

Constitution for the United States of America." - I dunno, nothing about the providing "public goods" here.

Constitution is not economics. And, incidentally, at that time, there was no knowlege of distinction between the public and private goods. We did not know that the speed of light is maximal possible either. It's been a while, you know.

Constitution, however much I revere it, is not the place to which one turns to learn phyiscs. Or mathematics. Or economics.

I understand your point of view on Mann. I very much appreciate your detailed exposisition. I am sorry to say, however, that I did not find your arguments convinicing. Thanks again for writing.