the bland beast of technocracy tom friedman roundly asserts today that taxes have been going down for the last 70 years. i must say that this news surprises and pleases me.

And in these past 70 years, leadership — whether of the country, a university, a company, a state, a charity, or a township — has largely been about giving things away, building things from scratch, lowering taxes or making grants.

but as our tax rates approach zero i do want to say that "leadership" in the friedman sense is not about giving things away or making grants. it is about coercion on a massive scale to reach whatever ends tom friedman wants us to reach.