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you probably know, Mike Duncan also did a great podcast series, The History of Rome , available on Apple Podcasts, covering Roman civilization “from founding to floundering.” Let us indeed hope that America doesn’t follow in Rome’s footsteps. One thing that we’ve got going for us is that we’ve dealt with a problem that Rome refused to face up to. We have established the basic property right of a person’s ownership of him or herself. The Romans were never able to free themselves from slavery. In the very period that you’re talking about, 73 B.C., Spartacus and his army of fellow escaped slaves almost put an end to the Roman Republic before the Caesars had a chance to. America may not have eliminated discrimination, inequality, or exploitation of vulnerable members of the labor force, but at least we spent our blood and treasure putting an end to legal slavery from 1861-1865. No true free market can exist without people being free. And free market forces, by fostering economic progress, expand people’s freedoms. This is why the Romans, although they had considerable technical knowledge and technical expertise, never produced any technology. Their market forces were undercut by a slave economy. Why invent labor-saving devices when labor is free? Slavery is not only morally repulsive, it is also economically idiotic. In this one respect, America is superior to Rome. Whether we’re superior in other respects is another question. For instance, are NFL team
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I just want to say thank you. I’m not sure why it took me so long to find this. – John R. P.J. O’Rourke comment: You’re welcome, John. And let me tell you why it took you so long to find American Consequences . Modern media is beset by a terrible “noise to signal” ratio. There are now so many different media providers attempting to get the attention of so many different media consumers (often in foolish, stupid, and highly partisan ways) that the result is not a “medium of communication,” but just static. But we’ll keep doing our best, trying to broadcast facts, logic, and common sense loud and clear. Re: What You’re Reading... I am reading The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan. It looks at Rome from about 150 B.C. to the onset of the Caesars, the fall of the Republic. Disturbing parallels to us today: The importation of many slaves to do work cheaply cut out the ‘plebs’, the blue-collar middle class, set them adrift and made them manipulatable. The mores of political and social discussion started to break down. There were endless foreign wars. It goes on; the book is worth a read. Not saying the U.S. is where Rome was, but it gives food for thought. – Stan M. P.J. O’Rourke comment: That sounds like a must-read, Stan. I’m ordering it right now. As
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October 2019
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