Biden’s Experience Doesn’t Mean He Can Plan an Economy

In a recent interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, President Biden responded to a question regarding his age (80 years old) and how that might affect his performance should he have a second term in office. “I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom and know more than the vast majority of people,” Biden said, “And I’m more experienced than anybody that’s ever run for the office.”

This was a positive response to a tough question, but one that deserves more examination. No presidency, especially one so active with industrial policy and economic planning, can get by on this answer.

We all recognize that a person who’s lived 80 years will have had more life experiences than one who has trod the planet for 70, 60 or 50 years. And it’s easy to see that Mr. Biden, who has devoted his entire adult life to politics, is armed with countless stories and lessons learned about the nation’s political economy. But granting this does not support the idea that Biden knows more than the vast majority of us, all topics considered. Nor does any of this matter much if his administration consistently fails to account for the vast majority of the people’s knowledge taken together.

As one who will turn 90 in a few months, I’m more inclined to think that life’s experiences make us realize how little we really know about the way the world works. Yes, we may excel at Trivial Pursuit over time, but I sympathize more with the character Ernest in J. M. Barrie’s comic play The Admirable Crichton. When asked to explain why he’s unaware of some important events, Ernest responds: “I am not young enough to know everything.” Anyone calling on a great grandson to help set up a new smartphone can relate.

Biden’s comment raises fundamental questions about what type of knowledge we need from a president. Writing in the 1940s, Friedrich Hayek penned what became a classic article: “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” Hayek, who later received the Nobel Prize in economics, explained that human communities face a severe knowledge problem; knowledge is dispersed across countless individuals, each of whom knows more about his particular circumstances than can anyone else.

The point is simple, but profound: Neither Biden nor any other person has sufficient knowledge of material extraction, refining, manufacturing, transport, and on an