A Century of the Wrong Framework

For more than a century, discussions of government policy have followed the wrong framework. The resulting policies have not solved the problems that they were intended to address. Indeed, those policies have just made the problems worse. The wrong framework leads to bad choices, and bad choices lead to undesirable results.

I call the framework that has dominated policy discussions the “Progressive framework.” It came to dominate policy discussions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—the Progressive Era in America history.

There are several key components to the Progressive framework. Politically, the framework holds that government is the solution to any problem, whether real or imagined. Morally, the framework holds that the individual exists to serve the collective, such as the community, the nation, or the “public.” According to the framework, government should use coercion against those who do not voluntarily sacrifice for the group. Epistemologically, the framework holds that we cannot predict the consequences of a policy. All we can do is try a policy, evaluate the results, and then try something else until we get the desired results.

The Progressive framework is founded on a rejection of reason, altruism, and collectivism.

The result has been a parade of policies that subordinate individuals to the “public interest.” While government officials make grand predictions of the wonderful benefits that will result, those results rarely are made manifest. But this does not dissuade those who embrace the Progressive framework. After all, we can’t predict the consequences of a policy. We have to implement it, and if we don’t like the results, then we must try something else. This has been the government’s approach for more than a century.

A century of the wrong framework has not solved the affordable housing problem. It has only made the problem worse. Today, government officials at every level are advocating variations of the same policies that have failed. A century of the wrong framework has not enabled more Americans to live flourishing lives. It has only made it more difficult, though not impossible, to rise economically. A century of the wrong framework has not eased racial tensions. It has only made racial tensions more prevalent.

If we truly want to move forward, to actually progress, we must reject the Progressive framework. In its place, we must embrace a framework that is pro-individual.