Defining Tyranny Down: A Review of Sohrab Amari's ‘Tyranny, Inc.’

More from the L&L review…

Ahmari’s book is not just a broadside against Big Tech and globalism; it is a jeremiad against free markets in general. If one did not know the author’s identity, it would be easy for a reader to conclude that Tyranny, Inc. was written by a democratic socialist in the vein of Michael Harrington. This is a blunt assessment, but hear me out. There is a big difference between “reforming” conservative policies and adopting in their place radical leftist talking points.

When you go far enough right, you find yourself bumping into some people headed left.

From the Acton review…

Ahmari insists that political economic outcomes are subject to social choices as well as impersonal market forces. But that doesn’t avoid the fact that these choices are subject to genuine dilemmas, and that it is impossible to have all the good things at the same time.

For example, Ahmari emphasizes the positive contribution of unions, which not only exercise countervailing power to employers but also cultivate genuine community among workers. But unions characteristically raise barriers to new entrants in order to increase wages. They also tend to lobby for regulations requiring enterprises to use more and more skilled labor than strictly necessary, raising consumer prices. When it comes to the essential good of housing, for example, there’s reason to think such policies discourage affordable construction and reduce overall supply. That’s not a dispositive case against organized labor, but it does reflect the genuine tradeoffs involved.