Other things equal: What's Wrong with the Earth Charter

Abstract

The Earth Charter, based on the model of the United Nations Charter on Human Rights, is circulating in Green Circles. Deirdre McCloskey spells out what's bad and false about the Charter. Although Ms. McCloskey hopes the Charter fails, she is not hopeful. The document, written by biologists and other activists entirely innocent of economics, has a good deal of economic nonsense. It fails to recognize how bad the project of social engineering has been for human freedom, which also means it has a good deal of political nonsense. But as she says, "when has nonsense been a bar to the success of a manifesto, left, right, or center, Red, Blue, or Green?"Economics