Tanstagi
From Free net encyclopedia
Tanstagi, an acronym standing for There Ain't No Such Thing As Government Interference, is the motto of the Invisible Hand Society, an originally fictional organization invented by Robert Anton Wilson in his Schrödinger's Cat trilogy. The acronym was deliberatly intended as a reference to Robert A. Heinlein's TANSTAAFL principle.
The Tanstagi principle is meant to imply that the invisible hand of the free market applies to government as well. In other words, contrary to traditional ideas of Laissez-faire capitalism, government interfence in the free market is impossible, since governments are inextricably a part of the market as a whole. Thus, true laissez-faire conditions are impossible, since the government will always affect the market. An example of this is the defence industry: since the government is the single biggest customer of this industry, it logically follows that this sector of the free market is inextricably tied up with government interference.
While it was first introduced in a book, people claiming to be members or know of chapters of the Invisible Hand Society have occasionally appeared in editorial pages and on the Internet.