Editor,
I believe that the record should be set straight as to the facts about capitalism and liberty.
This rhetoric infects a large proportion of our population with the long-held belief that capitalism is at the heart of our woes.
People claim that businessmen are evil and greedy, and that politicians serve some sort of “general welfare.”
But do they?
By looking at any historical evidence, one finds this rhetoric to be completely false and at odds with logic and reason.
We are indeed moving at an unprecedented rate away from economic freedom — at an extremely fast pace. Those who say otherwise are leading us down the same failing road traveled by many other countries in history.
In the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, the United States ranks eighth out of 179 nations. A year ago, it was sixth.
The top 10 countries are: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Denmark and Chile.
The bottom 10: Republic of Congo, Solomon Islands, Turkmenistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Venezuela, Burma, Eritrea, Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea.
So if we look at the freest countries, versus least free, we can see where it is more desirable to be. The same can be said when comparing similar experiments, North and South Korea, East and West Germany. The more government involvement, the worse it is.
First, it is a common tactic for those that would prefer a strong centralized government to divert their bad policies of extensive regulation on “greed” and “laissez-faire” (or freedom).
But is this the truth?
Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winning economist, once said, “It’s always the other fellow who’s greedy”
We never really look at ourselves. It is essentially human nature to call our own desire for more “justified,” while those who may acquire more are “greedy.”
Is it greed to take a risk? To build a business? To provide a product (or a service) to millions, who voluntarily decide whether they want to purchase it?
No, the greed comes from those who look to confiscate wealth. It comes from those who resent the “rich” and desire to see the wealthy miserable (not to see improvements in the status of the poor).
Capitalism is not corporate welfare by the government either. This is essentially what is going on with many corporations that donate money to politicians for special favors.
Capitalism is a free -market. Period. No government intervention, except in the case of fraud, is easily defined with a few laws. Corporations love regulations. It frees them of competition and makes it a lot cheaper to do business.
The government also uses our hard-earned dollars (both Bush and Obama) to bolster those same corporate companies in the face of competition. Why work to improve when you simply support your favorite politician? This does not require more regulation; it requires more competition, more free market, to solve.
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Capitalism is buying an Apple iPod or iPad voluntarily, at a mutually agreed-upon price. Both the seller and the buyer benefit. The buyer, for example, increases his knowledge or efficiency using the purchase, and the seller has money to invest in other endeavors.
After all, the seller has shown the ability to produce. The more that is produced or voluntarily purchased, the more rewarded the clever innovator gets. Both sides rightfully benefit. Where do we find the justification for confiscating from the producer?
The wealth is created by innovators and individual businessmen where rich and poor mutually benefit. There is no pie, no zero-sum where if the rich have more, that means that I have less. That’s the lie. That’s where the class warfare begins.
Politicians haven’t proven they know how to manage our money. They have a monopoly on the use of force and the ability to engineer society, but who ever told them that they know what’s best?
They deserve no part of our earned dollars, especially when they have not proven to be able to run a business, or even balance their own checkbooks.
They are good at one thing; Telling us what we want to hear, then serving their own interests. At least with the businessman, you usually know what you are spending your money on. This is why capitalism — unfettered laissez-faire capitalism — works.
Damian Erasmus
UNM alumnus
