Bailouts, Stimulus and Freedom

For the last weeks we have heard nothing but the specifics of one form of massive government spending or another. Be it a bailout or a stimulus package they both have two common elements that threaten your freedoms.

First, they will seriously erode the value of your dollar. Don't think that freedom and economics are not linked. Many people seem to believe there is no link, but then why was the revolutionary battle cry "No taxation without representation" so iconic? It shows the clear link, indeed, the inseparability of economic freedom and civil freedom.

Second, they both put the governments hands on massive amounts of what is rightly the private sector. We have already seen the governments sticky fingers on things. Do you think the government can make an economic argument for meddling in the compensation packages of the executives of the big banks? They don't even try. They make a social argument along the lines of "it's not proper". Who the hell is the government, specifically the President, to say what is proper compensation and what is not? And what criteria is he really using?

In both cases the problem is the concentration of power. In both cases power is being transferred from the private sector to the government. It's the age old equation of tyranny. More power in fewer hands.

Think I'm making this up? We have a historical precedence to study and consider. The public education system. The very moment a school begins to accept federal funds, for any program what so ever, the entire curriculum of the school falls under the heavy hand of the federal government.

An entire industry was corrupted by two things, free flowing federal dollars, and strings on those dollars. And what has been the result? Have American schools, which, by the way neither needed bailout nor stimulus at the time, advanced even farther ahead of the pack? Or have schools around the world made serious progress? You know the answer. The rest of the world is catching up, and government is directly to blame for slowing us down.

Another result has been the tyranny that is the National Education Association. The NEA has crushed all opposition to anything that might upset its applecart. Vouchers, crushed. School choice, crushed. Merit pay, crushed. In short, it has done everything it can to insolate itself against competition, which is the free market, which is freedom itself. The NEA is the government master of your childrens education, and by proxy, your children, and to a large extent you.

You still have the option to pay twice and send your child to a private school I suppose. Chalk one up for freedom, for the rich. The poor are stuck.

And the exact same thing is now happening to huge sectors of the American free enterprise system. The banks are now directly run by the government. They are effectively multiple branches of the same entity. The rules that apply in one will apply in all. This is the concentration of power at work.

Why is that dangerous?

Because there are no one-size fits all solutions to problems as diverse as economics on a global scale. Diversity has always been a safety net for the consumer. If one company fails, another is there or will be there shortly. Diversity and innovation come only from competition.

History proves I'm right too. We have far more companies doing innovation today than ever before. Those who point to the old saw of Wal-Mart putting mom and pop out of business never stop to ask what those displaced mom and pop are now doing. They had to innovate. They created new companies and new jobs. They didn't get hired on at minimum wage. Oh sure, a few proved to be unable to adapt, but the vast majority found new services to perform. And we are all better off for it. We have both now, Wal-Mart and the new stuff.

Capitalism does not concentrate power, it diversifies power.

Socialism concentrates power.

Concentrated power is tyranny.

Capitalism is freedom.

Your government is trying to buy you. Will you be bought?