Free Market or Economic Freedom

Capitalism has become a dirty word.  Those greedy capitalists only want to get rich off your hard work, or by taking your money.  So, political strategists have recommended candidates avoid the terms capitalism or free market.  The new term is "economic freedom."  

I like the term, but think that the free market or capitalism refers to much more than just the economy.  As I have written before, our entire form of federal government was intended to encourage a free market among states.  The federal government is supposed to have extremely limited powers.  Policy is supposed to be determined on the state level.  For instance, if you want  a high tax rate, but a government that also takes care of your health care, retirement benefits, and tightly regulates other aspects of your life, you could choose to live in Massachusetts or California.  If you want little government regulation, low taxes, and few state provided benefits, you could choose to live in Texas or Montana.  The idea of the founders was to allow each individual state to choose the level of service and the rate of taxation for their state.  American citizens would choose where to live, based in part on state policies.  The system works when left alone.  The problem is that it is just human nature to interfere.  People in Massachusetts think those poor fools in Idaho aren't being treated fairly.  They have to pay for their own health care.  So they make it their mission to get the federal government involved in Idaho's affairs.  Soon, we have 50 (or 57, depending on your sources) states with the same policies and no freedom of choice.

Rand Paul, Republican nominee from Kentucky, has been criticized recently for his comments about 1960's civil rights legislation.  His statement was that he does not want it repealed, and if a senator at the time, he would have voted for it.  But, as a Libertarian (minimal government), he thinks the market would more effectively and permanently solve the problem of discrimination.


An excellent example of his theory is in, if you know me yet you should have guessed by now....... SPORTS!  One of the heroes of the civil rights movement is Jackie Robinson.  I would say that everyone knows the Jackie Robinson story by now, but I have very little faith left in the way history, or even what history, is being taught.  So, I'll just say that Robinson was the first black athlete in any of the major professional sports in America.  If you don't know his story, or just want a little more of his biography, click here.   So, what legislation was passed to force baseball to allow Jackie Robinson his chance to become a professional baseball player?  Would you believe none?  

That's right, no one forced Branch Rickey of the  Dodgers to give Robinson a chance.  Rickey saw a great talent in Robinson, and a great pool of talent that was only being utilized in the Negro League.  Not only would he get a great player and be the first to tap into a large number of talented players, his Dodgers would be the team of choice for a huge market of baseball fans - the black baseball fan.  While Branch Rickey may have been a civil rights proponent, his job was to sell tickets and win baseball games.  By signing Jackie Robinson, he did both.  The following year, Larry Doby was signed by the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black player in the American League.  Soon black and Latino players were common in professional baseball.  As I said in yesterday's post, sports is a copycat business.  So it wasn't long before other professional sports followed baseball's lead.

The NFL did not enjoy the popularity of baseball and was not considered a major professional sport until the 1960's.  So the first black player in the NFL is hardly recognized.  Charles Follis played professional football for the Shelby Athletic Club in 1906, or possibly earlier.  Black players came and went from football rosters throughout the first half of the 20th century.  By the 1960's black players dominated the league.  In 1951, the NBA drafted three black players, the most famous being Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton.  Again, NBA rosters today are dominated by black players.  

So, why did the three major sports in America choose to employ black players years before civil rights legislation would have forced them to do so?  They were the most qualified candidates for the position.  They helped their employer make money - sell tickets, and be more productive - win games.  When the free market system is allowed to work unimpeded, it works as illustrated in sports.  People in business, as in sports, are interested in success.  They will do whatever is necessary to succeed.  Very few successful businessmen will allow a personal prejudice to influence their business decisions.  And if they do, the market will eventually eliminate them.  Without influence from government regulations.  

Life as Sport

Fans are constantly reminded that the NBA, or NFL, or whatever league is a copycat league.  In the mid 1970's, Tom Landry brings back the shotgun formation to the NFL.  Soon every team in the league is using the formation.  Jerry Glanville used a maximum pressure defense with his "Grits Blitz" philosophy in Atlanta.  Soon Mike Ditka's Bears are dominating the league with their pressure 46 defense.  In baseball, teams have tried with varying degrees of success to copy Billy Beane's "Moneyball" style of management to build teams on a budget.

Pat Riley won three championships with the Lakers before moving on to the New York Knicks.  His New York team did not have the talent Riley was accustomed to coaching, so he moved to a defensive philosophy.  His Knick teams were built around an aggressive, very physical defense.  Their philosophy boiled down to "foul them on every possession.  The referees, not only won't call every foul, but they will soon call fewer fouls as they become accustomed to the physical play.  It was a variation of the Overton Window theory I wrote about a couple of months ago.  Riley's Knicks were successful, at least until they ran into either Jordan's Bulls or Olajuwon's Rockets in the playoffs.

A few years later, Bill Belichick used the same tactic to beat the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl.  The Rams used their high powered passing offense, known as the "Greatest Show on Turf," to win a Super Bowl and were favored to beat Belichick's Patriots.  Belichick knew his defensive backs were no match for the Ram's speed receivers, so his defensive backs held the Ram's receivers on virtually every play.  After a couple of calls, the referees stopped calling the violation.  The Ram receivers were frustrated and the Patriots won a close game.

Our president is an admitted sports fan.  He learned the lessons of Belichick and Riley.  Just keep hitting the public with outrageous tax after outrageous policy after outrageous decision and soon we will stop calling him on it.  Remember the outrage when the stimulus package was passed with no Republican support?  Followed by an outright takeover of the largest automaker in the nation?  Followed by "the police acted stupidly" comment?  Followed by an "apology tour" of the middle east?  Followed by the health care takeover?  Followed by public condemnation of Arizona's "misguided" immigration law (that neither he nor his attorney general had yet read)?  Followed by a lack of interest in helping the Louisiana governor prepare for the arrival of oil from the worst environmental accident in U.S. history?  Followed by a drilling moratorium that will cost the same regions affected by the spill thousands of jobs and millions of dollars?  Now, about to be followed by a cap and trade, energy independence, clean energy, whatever they are calling it today, legislation that will effectively take over the energy industry in the country.   Rumored to soon be followed by turning against Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorist neighbors. 

We are the referees.  We can't let this administration keep getting away with the violations of our rights and principles.  We've got to keep blowing the whistle until they stop.

Get Back in the Game

Today is the one year anniversary of the founding of the 9/12 Project. I won't get into the details of the Project, just say that if you are conservative and concerned about what is happening to our country, check out the 9/12 Project.  The start of this project was a call in to Glenn Beck's radio program.  A caller said he was so disgusted by what was going on with the government and media that he had just quit listening and paying attention to what was going on.  Beck's advice was to "square your shoulders and get back in the game."

Like I said before, almost everything will remind me of a Dallas Cowboy story.  In case you don't know, the Cowboys won 3 of 4 Super Bowls in the mid-1990's.  The only one they didn't win was won by the 49'ers.  The 49'ers beat the Cowboys in the NFC championship game (the real Super Bowl that year).  In the first quarter of the game, Troy Aikman threw to Michael Irvin on an early drive.  The ball bounced off Irvin's hands and was intercepted and run back for a touchdown by a 49'er.  Next drive, same story.  Cowboys are now down 14-0 and the game has just started.  To make a long story short, or at least not quite as long, three Cowboy turnovers turned into three 49'er touchdowns in the first 20 minutes of the game.  And the Cowboys were down 17 points at half time.  Cowboys' coach Barry Switzer gave the team essentially the same advice Beck gave his caller, "square your shoulders and get back into the game."  It was probably Aikman's best game as a Cowboy quarterback.   He fell short 38-28, but anyone watching knew who was really the best team.  The Cowboys took that loss and used it as the basis for their dominating season and Super Bowl victory the next season.

If Americans respond the way Aikman and the Cowboys did that day, we might lose the healthcare game, but win the larger game and get our country back.

Unfortunately, I am also reminded of another Cowboy story.  In the early 1980's, NFL players went on strike and the owners used strike busters in some of the season.  Kevin Sweeney was the Cowboy quarterback.  He was an effective college quarterback, but at only 5'9" he just wasn't built for the NFL once the big boys came back to work.  The season following the strike, the Cowboys invited Sweeney to training camp, even though he had no shot at making the team.  In the first preseason game, the Cowboys trailed the Houston Oilers by more than 40 points and the Texas Stadium crowd was chanting  "Sweeney, Sweeney, Sweeney!"  After an Oiler punt pinned the Cowboys offense inside their own 5 yard line, with under three minutes left in the game, Coach Tom Landry relented to the crowd's wishes and put Kevin Sweeney in at quarterback.  The crowd went crazy.  Sweeney goes into the huddle looks up at the scoreboard, the clock and the endzone, more than 95 yards away.  He looks around the huddle at the other third teamers now in the game, shakes his head and says,"Boys, I'm not sure I can win this one."  Two sacks and an incompletion later, the Cowboys punt and Sweeney's NFL career is over.

I hope America is more comparable to Aikman's Cowboys than Sweeney's team now.  I guess we will soon learn.