Two Different Approaches

Banning chain saws, tractors, or combine harvesters is not as cranky an idea as it may appear—if you adopt a certain approach. Banning has always been a preferred activity of governments and, with a few exceptions, the trend has only accelerated during the last decades. If you look around you, in both economic and social life, you will find a large number of goods or activities that are forbidden, from incandescent light bulbs to running businesses without permits or licenses, to recreational drugs, to many sorts of sexual encounters, to many other things. When outright bans were impossible, partial ones were imposed. Tobacco is prohibited by law in many places, including private places like restaurants and bars. Drinking is prohibited for patrons younger than a certain age and in certain places. Many sorts of trades are banned, not only on financial markets but also for ordinary consumers. Similarly, a worker and an employer cannot agree on terms that violate labor legislation and regulation . As Robert Nozick once remarked, socialism—he could have used the more general term “statism”—is about prohibiting capitalists acts between consenting adults.1