Views on Free Markets

In times of great productivity and success, many people speak out and call for a free market. That is, a market that has no interference from the government. The population sees cash flowing in, but then the government is taking a slice they don't deserve. However, then the going gets rough, or even, heaven forbid, really rough, and the same populace screams "Help, Help! Save me!" Make your mind up! Everyone wants what is the best for them at the time. No one thinks of the future! Even when times are bad, though, I think, the free market is the way to go, despite how much someone may lose, because if the free market remains free, then it will not die, and it will pick it self up. However, with regulation at both best and worst times, inevitably a point will be reached where that government force inadvertently causes an irrevocable failure.

There are several reasons for this. The first is bureaucracy. Although the least of the several reasons, it makes the most immediate sense. I mean, take our congress, for example. Can you imagine them running a business? Putting everything to a vote? Splitting every decision 50-50? Debating on every little thing? I can imagine it now.

"I say we put the tampon advertisements on a billboard on the highway to no where. That way it has a purpose."

"No, that's absolutely ridiculous! Do you not care about black people? These need to go on port-a-potty's on skid row. Apparently there's been a slump in sales. We can get them cheap spots."

See what I mean? This is exactly the pathetic way that congress argues. What business in their right mind commissions a highway to no where merely for the sake of it? And pork-belly spending? That method of liberal money throwing wouldn't even be tolerated at Enron! And to top it off, look at how they run their own business! Trillions of dollars of debt? Budget deficits? It's a wonder the white house hasn't been given a foreclosure notice. I can see it now.

"We're here to evict an umm.... Mr. George W. Bush? No, no, I don't care that you're giving a foreign leader a massage. I need you to leave. What? You're gonna tell Dick on me? Tell that to the bank."

Plus, the corruption and scandalous behavior that is done by our wonderful representatives on capital hill would rip a company to shreds! At least in the office it's only bosses doing their secretaries, not 65 year old men soliciting gay sex from an undercover police officer in an airport bathroom! And Elliot Spitz! He paid 85 dollars an hour to that chick? Where's the fiscal sense in that?

The second, more serious reason, is the statistical data on the track record of past governments, as well as simple economic common sense. Destruction of the free market delivers inferior products, and a lot of that is what hurts us. Our inferior products cannot compete with European and Japanese goods, seriously damaging our economy and overall GDP. The lower quality goods started with cars, and electronics, and has now spread to crappy mortgages, in a strange, twisted way. Penalties, mandates, and extra taxes force companies to take shortcuts and end up delivering those lower quality items. Germany and Japan, some of the strongest economies int he world, have governments that strictly protect the free market from interference, and their nations have profited greatly for it.

Finally, mandating and regulating the sale of certain items and business practices leave us no room for error. Free markets fall and heal; with this bailout, we won't get a second chance. Backing the wrong technologies or policies, may leave us with banks shutting down faster than we can handle, a bankrupt government. None of the security and illusions we had will be there anymore. And this time, there won't be a drop of oil left to give us a second chance.