Think Long-Term

David Brooks of the New York Times advocated that Democrats implement what Obama ran on during the 2008 campaign – change and thinking long term.

America is concerned that we are in decline. It is less that we are in decline and more that the rest of thee world has caught up. At the end of World War II, we were the last country standing. As everyone else was cleaning up the ruble, we were moving ahead. If we are to compete in this new world, we must think long-term; both as a nation and as individuals.

Government can assist in this planning and implantation process and government must do everything it can to unleash American ingenuity. We must free our free markets. Virtually everyone who claims to be conservative says he is pro-capitalism and for free markets. Most state free markets are stifled because of over regulation. I agree, we should prudently curtail over regulation that causes inefficiencies. However, government regulation needs to better protect are basic freedom; including our right to access free markets.


Free markets are destroyed by not only government, but also by bad players in the market who create either monopolies or oligopolies. These entities destroy capitalism. Adam Smith defined capitalism as a situation where there are many producers, corporations, who are pursuing their rational self-interest while many consumers, citizens, are simultaneously pursuing their rational self-interest. In this manner, it is in the self-interest of the producers to provide the goods and services demanded by the consumers at the best price and quality possible. If they do not, the consumer will go elsewhere and the producer will lose profits and potentially go out of business.

Milton Friedman, the conservative economist, says in his book Free To Choose that governments role in a free market system is to be the umpire and rule enforcer in order to assure that economic markets are indeed free. No one in their right mind would envision playing a NFL football game without rules and umpires. Yet, in some of our industries this is exactly what has happened. Entities have formed oligopolies and the rational self-interest of the oligopoly is to keep it alive and make it even stronger. When this happens, goods and services are not produced to meet the demands of the consumer at the lowest price and highest quality possible. Instead, shareholders and senior management are rewarded for forming the oligopoly. The reward comes from higher share prices and excessive costs, including egregious salaries paid to senior executives, passed on to the consumer.

The oligopolies accomplish their selfish objectives by bribing the umpires, our representatives, with campaign contributions. It is a mystery why unions and corporations can buy votes with campaign contributions; even though they cannot actually vote. This must change and a good start is to visit the following web site.

http://fixcongressfirst.org/

The government has failed to protect our basic right of freedom; access to free markets. Until we correct this, we will not get back to our potential. This should be part of the long-term plan.

Help us to be FREE TO CHOOSE!

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