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  His statement was that he does not want it repealed, and if a senator at the time, he would have voted for it.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.  

Ban It!

Here's an interesting story about the importance of education and the average American's willingness to let the government take care of them.

A reporter went to Times Square on a weekday late afternoon, just as office workers were crowding the street to go home after a work day.  He stopped 200 people at random and asked if they would favor the federal government either banning or strictly regulating the use of dihydrogen monoxide.  Dihydrogen monoxide is a very commonly found chemical that, through simple inhalation, kills thousands of people per year in the United States alone. It's use by businesses and individuals is essentially unregulated.  No licenses are required for its purchase or use.

As a former resident of Arizona, and frequent radio listener in the Phoenix area, I can tell you that the state ran public service ads hourly warning about the dangers of the chemical, especially to young children.

The poll results?  70% of those questioned said the government should ban the chemical compound immediately.  15% said it should be strictly regulated.  The remaining 15% were obviously libertarian nutjobs that protest government regulation of anything.  After all who is not in favor of banning di(meaning 2) hydrogen (highly explosive, right?) mono (one) oxide (oxygen)?  Or H2O.  If you still don't get it, you must be a recent American high school graduate.  It's water.

We not only allow, but encourage these people to vote!  Change, yeah!  Sign me up!  Oh yeah, what are we changing to?  Hope it's good.  Got any water?

Catch!!!!

Remember when you were a kid and your friend would throw a ball at you and then yell, "catch!!?"  His goal was usually to hit you in the face.  Hilarious, huh?  One of our football drills was similar.  The receiver would stand inside a circle of 6 other players.  The coach would yell out a clock point, 12, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10.  The player at that point would throw the ball at the receiver as he spun to catch the ball.  The coach would yell out the points out faster and faster, until you had footballs flying from all directions.

Right now, average Americans are the receiver in the middle.  And the Obama administration is surrounding us at all points of the clock, down to the seconds.  First they fire a fast, hard one at us.  A 2000+ page health care takeover.  We turned,  but not quick enough and took that fastball to the face.  Good news is that Americans threw it back hard enough to get their attention for a couple of minutes anyway.

Now they are firing away from every direction.  Here comes cap and trade.  Look out, here comes immigration reform.  Pow, there is another western state land grab Zoom, there went FCC regulation of the internet Voting on a change in language for statehood ballots for Puerto Rico Didn't see that one coming There went representation in the House for D.C. Lobbed in legalizing carrying firearms in national parks, while zipping in voting rights for convicted felons Ouch At least it is called the Democracy Restoration Act, how bad could that be Student loans as part of health care How'd that one get by It will be a revenue stream to reduce the cost of health care, oh, ok How's it going to produce revenue when it doubles the amount of grants given (those don't have to paid back)And if you work for the government you don't have to pay back your loan at all Boy, we fumbled that one Federal regulation of all U.S. waters, right over our head Goldman Sachs executives being excoriated by the Senate.  Caught that one.  Good.  Let those evil thieving bankers have it.  Almost destroyed our economy with their shady home loans.  Wait a minute, Congress required them to make those risky loans.  They protected their investors by hedging their bets, didn't they?  If I had money invested in Goldman, I'd be adding them to my Christmas card list!  Dropped that one too.  Stop, we need a break!  Put down that banking regulation reform!  Look out, here comes Supreme Court nominee!!