Human nature hasn't
changed much in 2,000 years. Greed, bribes and the desire to be ruled
and regulated are still with us.
In "The Discovery of
Freedom," Rose Wilder Lane relates the story from the Bible where the men
of Israel beseeched Gideon crying out, "Rule thou, over us ..." ("Rule us"
being a synonym for today's "regulate us").
One hundred years later
the wise man Samuel was beseeched, "Now make us a king to judge us, like
all other nations." A king not like your sons, "who but turned aside after
lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice."
My friend
George Mitrovich recently wrote in The
Daily Transcript, "The rush to deregulation began under
President Reagan. It grew under Clinton and exponentially under President
Bush ... this unrestrained faith in free markets..." This was George's
own
cry to
"regulate us/rule us!"
I fell out of my chair
laughing. Especially since President Bush increased the federal regulatory
budget exponentially to nearly double President Clinton's and has outspent
all previous presidents on regulations.
According to the
Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2007, roughly 50 regulatory agencies
issued 3,595 new rules -- 159 of which are estimated to cost at least $100
million a year each. The number of pages in the Federal Register, which
lists government regulations, reached an all-time high of 78,090 pages.
Outlays under George Bush for regulatory activities between 2001 and FY
2009 will total $42.7 billion, a 62 percent increase. In those areas where
the regulations are greatest, among them finance, housing and autos, the
government-created problems are the greatest. Please George, pray tell
where is this rush to deregulation?
George Mitrovich is not
alone in criticizing the free market and some recent miniscule
deregulations (most of which occurred under President Clinton). America
first began flirting with socialism, more government planning and
regulation, when the Great Depression began in 1932. Ever since then we've
been taught that mid-way between capitalism and communism there's a third
way -- part capitalist-part socialist -- supposedly the best of both to
solve America's economic and social problems. There is, however, no such
thing as a mixed economy. The economy is either directed by the impartial
market or by government decrees.
Economist and historian
Robert Higgs notes: "Left liberal historians worship political power, and
idolize those who wield it most lavishly in service of left-liberal
causes." Does this country really need more centralized control, more
central planning from Washington? Barack Obama campaigned on closing the
regulatory loopholes and promised to "restore common-sense regulation." He
promised to put the government even more in charge of our economic lives.
Should we really give our neighbors -- who just because they happen to
work for the government -- more power over us, especially our elected
officials? Do we really want to give more power to people the likes of
Illinois Gov. Blagojevich?
The people who scorn and
disparage free enterprise and call everything they dislike "Capitalistic"
believe Blagojevich was just acting as a free marketeer, a "willing
seller" wanting to sell a U.S. Senate seat to a "willing buyer" for all
the "market will bear."
Those who praise the
socialist aspects of the American economy are in effect, advocating that
we need to be regulated by the likes of the over 1,000 Illinois public
officials convicted since 1972, or perhaps by Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens,
Congressman William Jefferson, Tom Delay and Randy Cunningham. Or, perhaps
by the 450 members of Congress who regularly bounced checks in the House
Banking Scandal in 1992. How about by the executives of Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac who put the match to the housing market? Maybe we should seek
out the government overseers of Social Security and Medicare who have
given us a $99.2 trillion unfunded liability (Source: Federal Reserve Bank
President, Richard Fisher).
The agents provocateurs
who dislike the free market, because it lacks central planning by an
all-knowing Harvard or Yale graduate, feel compelled to demonize
capitalism in order to confuse, obfuscate and dissemble what is really
happening in the economy. They wish to discredit free market capitalism by
depriving the public of the semantic tools to understand and deal with the
problems at hand. They want the public to believe the opposite: that the
housing crisis and credit meltdown are the result of free market
deregulation rather than being produced by the repulsive manifestations of
government interventions.
The free market is an
economic democracy in which every penny gives a right to a vote in
determining our well-being every day -- not once every four years. When
government is limited by constitutions, bills of rights and laws, it is
indispensable for making the free market work by fulfilling its legitimate
role of protecting the people against foreign and domestic predators,
penalizing fraud and by invoking a common system of justice.
The free market remains
the dominant part of our economy even though the government at all levels
consumes/spends about 41 percent of the national income. (Source: Milton
Friedman). People produce wealth. Government consumes wealth. Therefore,
any economic recovery will come quickest from the free market, the
producing 60 percent of the economy. A genuine jump start would entail
cutting capital gains taxes to the pre-1921 rate of zero for maximum
growth. Additionally, all corporate and personal income taxes should be
reduced instead of being raised as the Democrats in Congress have
promised. It's dumb to take money out of the hands of the producers who
earn it, send it to Washington and after deducting a 41 percent handling
and shipping fee send a portion back to individuals in the form of
stimulus packages and bailouts.
