The Only Something Better than Nothing
Relying on the last remnants of reason, so many sense the need for immediate action to repair our economy. They fail to realize that action void of principled purpose is chaos, regardless of the intensity or desire by which such action is fueled.
“Something is better than nothing, and bigger was better than smaller in terms of the stimulus needed,” said Chris Varvares, president of prominent forecaster Macroeconomic Advisers in St. Louis. “The economy needs a fiscal jolt.”
Something. They don’t know what, just something has to be done. So called “economic experts” are all adamantly voicing their opinions to perpetuate the power-grabbing monstrosity about to clobber the United States. There is one opinion in this piece piece that has merit at least at face value:
“[this] is 25 years of government expansion jammed into one bill and sold as stimulus,” said Brian Riedl, the director of budget analysis for the Heritage Foundation,
Indeed. Like a school of entranced, confused piranhas enjoying the largest power-pork frenzy in American history, even in the face of economic collapse it’s politics as usual for our leaders. While millions of productive individuals face daunting uncertainty watching their retirement circle the drain, or wading through a year’s worth of online out-of-state shopping receipts in order to accurately report use tax, our dear representatives in Washington are bickering over how many billions of dollars they can squeeze in for eco-friendly golf carts, Socialized medicine plumbing and any other pet they can lead to the trough.
If the motives of Congress, and the nature of American Government aren’t brilliantly clear to you at this point, please check your pulse. As Myrhaf @ The New Clarion put it, “This bill is the most dishonest government act of my lifetime, if not all of American history. “ - I couldn’t agree more.
Many are quick to spin this conversation into partisan terms, but very little would be different if the other team were calling the shots. Keynesian policies are poisonous regardless of who’s administering the dosage. Lack of explicit principles is why we are in this situation and exactly what will render attempts to remedy as futile.
The truth lies in the fact that our leaders don’t know what to do, so they resort to their penchant for spending other people’s money. The seemingly unanimous sense of urgent necessity for this bill coupled with fear in the private sector brews a green light for ruthless indulgence. This is as close to free-reign looting as they’ve ever been allowed. Like teenagers in a shopping mall with unlimited credit - anything goes.
Economics is a science of elegant simplicity, one that markets of the utmost complexity follow with strict compliance. Supply and demand for capital, labor and goods are the supreme rulers. Their only stipulation is the freedom of choice on behalf of suppliers and demanders. So long as this requirement is met, the market will function in perfect accord with reality and justice. Individuals are free to produce in order to survive and improve their quality of life, specialization will allow men to focus their energies where they are most productive, and the resulting innovation will add value to the lives of all participants. So long as men are free to think, act and keep the results there will be economic growth. Freedom and productivity lead to supply and demand - simple and elegant justice.
Only when the gremlin of Government intervention is introduced does the market become saddled with a layer of foggy complexity. Freedom is limited, production is reduced. Regulatory coercion serves to distort supply and demand in immeasurable ways by granting immunity from any number of economic laws to any number of market entities. For the Yin of every nudge there’s a Yang of market repercussions. In a free market, individuals will direct their time and energy towards whatever endeavor will provide the most return. A good decision on where to spend time or money rewards the individual with wealth, a bad decision destroys wealth. So long as the decision is left to the individual, the market will regulate itself. Conversely, when the productive efforts of individuals are restricted or amplified by forces outside the market of choice, supply of and demand for capital, labor, or goods is affected. These affects represent the tangible departure from justice because the gauges that indicate a good or bad business decision are no longer calibrated with reality. Faulty gauges represent a corrupted economy because men no longer can exert energy or direct capital as effectively. To destroy a man’s wealth, or even worse, hamper his means to produce wealth, is to restrict his ability to survive. Men will always seek to avoid a force acting to their detriment, so their behavior is distorted. They are acting against their own judgment by force. Add into the mix a set of arbitrary rules further restricting an individual’s ability to make good decisions precisely because of his tendency to do so and only chaos, uncertainty or crime are his possible avenues. The reason that regulation is impractical is that it is immoral. Destruction of wealth is the only possible result of trampling a man’s right to life, liberty and property by regulating trade amongst voluntary individuals.
These unnatural complexities are the same reason it’s virtually impossible to concoct a remedy, especially one that requires and prescribes more of the same infectious agent. Like an act of viral combat, our leaders aim to introduce Smallpox to alleviate Ebola. Even if the symptoms of Ebola are mitigated short term, does it matter now that the patient has Smallpox?
A mixed-economy is how we refer to the perfect market infected with the virus of regulation. Like any virus, regulation conveys damaging structural effects on its host. This is the exact nature of what the American economy has suffered from throughout the last 119 years. Not only have we ignored the cause, we’ve continued to amplify it at every opportunity.
The obvious something that is better than nothing is to stop introducing new viral agents. Let the infection run its painful course and act to administer a vaccine. The vaccine should be dismantling entities or legislation that interfere with the market. Any form of regulation should be removed, and we should return to an objectively backed currency. If a trillion dollar shopping spree is the decision, the only moral usage for that money is to send it back to the individuals that earned it.
History brilliantly illustrates the correlation of prosperity to freedom. The economic growth of America highlights the immeasurable benefits of a market void of the regulatory virus. Our current economic realities reveal the immeasurable degradation to human existence where the virus runs exacerbated by repeat exposure. To survive, man must think and act according to his rational judgment. If you want man to produce and innovate, get out of his way.
This is the only something that we should consider.
