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  His statement was that he does not want it repealed, and if a senator at the time, he would have voted for it.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

Rangers Win the World Series!! Or Maybe Not

Hell must've frozen over.  No, the Rangers didn't even win their regular season game today, much less the World Series.  An even more rare occurrence.  I heard an intelligent comment on National Public Radio.  Of course it was at 3:30 this morning on a BBC rebroadcast, and it was made by an Indian (from India, not Native America).  

Mark Twain once said that democracy was like the steam powered printing press that he invested his life savings in.  It worked one time. In a dark room.  With no witnesses.  Intelligent commentary on NPR is just as rare.  But I did hear it!

The story was the typical NPR drivel about businesses destroying the planet with greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.  Specifically they were telling how polluted the Ganges River has become.  The Ganges River is sacred to the Hindus in India.  At least once a year they bathe in the river as an act of purification.  Even with raw sewage, industrial waste, and dead oxen floating down the river!  

The Indian scientist being interviewed was telling about his studies of the self-purification qualities of the river.  He said that something about the river itself purifies the water more quickly than other rivers being studied.  His hypothesis was that an element present in the huge quantity of leaves that wash down off the Himalayan mountains speeds the purification process of the river. But the cleansing process has been slowed because of the dams that have been built in the past 50 years slowing the flow of the river.

The interviewer asked why, if the river is so sacred to the local population, did they allow it to become so polluted?  And not polluted just by industries and businesses, but by the local population?  The Indian scientist said he blamed the British.  When the British controlled India, they set up government agencies to regulate the businesses and control the quality of the water in the river.  He was not blaming the government for loose restrictions on the industries, but for trying to regulate the water's quality in the first place.  He said the regulatory process created a disconnect between the local people and the river.  

In all the previous history of the area, the people took responsibility for keeping the river clean and keeping it sacred.  The British had good intentions when they tried to regulate what was being dumped into the river, but by taking control of the water quality, they took away the local population's respect of the river as well.  The scientist 
said people no longer feel responsible for keeping the river clean.  The government takes their tax money and says it is to keep the river clean.  So the people feel that it is the government's job.  Even though the citizens are the ones who bathe with bloated dead oxen floating past, they don't feel the need to keep their water clean.  It is the government's job.  They also feel that it is o.k. to toss their ox in the river.  The government will clean it up.

I have seen similar results of government intervention on the highways of northern Arizona.  The Navajo of the high desert along the Arizona - Utah border reputedly have a deep respect for the earth.  Their religion teaches that they actually came from a world inside the earth to this world through a sipapu, or small hole in sacred areas of the earth.  So the earth is literally their mother, and like their mother, to be respected and revered.  When the state and federal highways were built through the reservation, the government took responsibility for keeping the land clean.  A drive along Highway 160 from the Four Corners area through Tuba City on the western edge of the reservation features beautiful scenery.  The scenery that John Ford made famous in his John Wayne westerns.  But the current scenery also includes a highway lined with literally millions of empty beer bottles, beer cans, and more trash than you would find after a spring break frat house party.  The American Indians feel no need to clean the area, or no reason not to throw their trash along the road.  The government will clean it up.  It's their job.  And like every other job taken on by the government, they don't do it very well, if at all.  Although they are pretty efficient at collecting the tax revenue needed to pay for the job!

Now they have taken responsibility for keeping us healthy.  Or at least they will take the responsibility in 2014.  In the meantime, they will take the revenue starting today.  I was taught in human resources classes on interviewing and hiring, "past performance predicts future results."  The government's history tells us this will not end well.


But I did hear an intelligent comment on NPR!  Can the Rangers' World Series rings be far behind?