Okay, that title is somewhat hyperbolic, and I am venturing into overstated, counterfactual territory here. But I am going to do it to make a point. There are areas of human endeavor that would almost certainly be more advanced without the resource-sucking, brain-draining, progress-slowing impacts of leftism.
First there are the sheer monetary costs. Big government, high taxes, redistribution from more to less productive and efficient endeavors, and so on. I have read estimates that human society would be 40 percent wealthier without this ongoing drain.* What could have been done with all those extra resources remaining in private hands?
Second is the regulatory cost. How much further along would we be without regulatory burdens and compliance costs?
Third is the brain-drain. The left killed between 100 and 240 million people in the 20th century (no one knows for sure how many). What brilliant minds were lost? What might they have done? What discoveries might their children have made, and their children’s children? We’ll never know. Similarly, there are about 40 million abortions worldwide every year, and while that’s not the exclusive province of the left…it mostly is. And then there is the diversion of brilliant minds to pointless agenda items of the left, like trying to convince humanity that the next eco-pocalypse is right around the corner.
Diseases never cured. Boundaries never broken. How much further along would our space exploration be? How much further along might things like longevity research be?
We’ll never know. It’s all just counterfactual speculation. And I am sure the lefty can conjure up scenarios to make the opposite claim. I think they’d be wrong. We know they’ve cost us in treasure. We know they’ve cost us in blood, with their bottomless predilection for democide. We know how much time they spend trying to convince us all of things that are not true. We’ll never know just how much they’ve retarded human progress. I suspect it may be more than we realize.
(*I think this was in David Boaz’ Libertarianism, A Primer but I am too busy right now to check.)
