When did the basis of our country’s economy become multiple choice? We do not operate under a free market, capitalist system just for the hell of it. We do so because it is the only system that follows the laws of economics. Now let me clarify something here; the laws of economics exist and remain true whether you subscribe to them or not, much like the laws of physics. Hard core liberals love to tell people of faith (really just Christians and Jews) that they must give up their foolish beliefs and devote themselves to the definitive realities of science. Yet, just as easily as they cling to Darwin and other scientific theories and facts, they dismiss the laws of economics.
Our forefathers (who happened to be the same type of “god fearing lunatics” that many liberals despise) designed this country under the concept that we all were entitled to liberty and the pursuit of private property and wealth. This capitalist and free market mindset has enabled this country to grow from a group of abusively taxed, under class, farmers and tradesmen to the greatest economic and military superpower the world has ever seen, in considerably less than 200 years.
Now I ask you, where has embracing a socialist style of governance (specifically in economic policy) ever benefited any nation the way free market capitalism has benefited ours? Can’t think of one country that practices socialist style economic policy that is better off than us? Shocker! Now tell me how many free market societies have found themselves underfoot of a totalitarian regime while staying true to the practice of capitalism and democracy? Oh, that’s right, the answer is zero! Yet how many times in our world’s history has socialism lead to totalitarian, fascist regimes? Even with a liberal college education you couldn't deny the disastrous results of socialism. And to those who have some examples of successful socialist countries I would offer that those places are “successful” in spite of themselves due to a small docile population.
Why then is the United States embracing more and more socialist policies every week? The answer is simple. The President of the United States as well as the majorities of both the House of Representatives and the Senate fully subscribe to a liberal socialist ideology. They feel, and govern, quite unapologetically that the way to solve all of the world's ills is to have gigantic government apparatus that oversees and/or controls just about everything. They have no faith in the free market and they have no faith in you.
Some folks say that corrupt capitalists allowed to run amuck by an administration that was asleep at the wheel are to blame for our current economic crisis. To counter that point (and it is a good one on its face) I would argue that the government’s interference in the free market was the true catalyst for the corruption. I can’t absolve the previous administration from not creating or maintaining the appropriate oversight, but I can explain why that lack oversight wouldn’t have been as big a problem had our government not meddled with the private sector to being with.
Once upon a time the reputable banks in this country operated under strict self imposed guidelines regarding the lending of money. They would only enter into transactions with borrowers who met certain criteria such as having collateral and being able to demonstrate that they could regularly pay down their debts with interest and someday pay off the loan in its entirety. I don’t know about you but that looks like a pretty sound way to do business. You really do have to admit that it makes a lot of financial sense to operate a bank this way, don’t you? Granted, in this system, if you could not afford something (i.e. a home) you were unable to get it. But that doesn’t sound so bad does it? I’m sure you can think of a handful of things that you want but can’t have because you can’t afford them. And, if you’re a reasonable person, you don’t think that you’re entitled to those things and let the absence of those possessions make you bitter and angry with the world. However, if you’re a liberal, progressive, socialist ideologue you have a major entitlement issues not just for yourself, but on behalf all those who you feel have been let down by the cold dispassionate capitalist system.
Enter the government. Some liberal democrats had the happy pink bunny rabbit idea that everyone should be able to “own” a home no matter how little income they had. So they applied pressure on the banks to make bad loans to unqualified borrowers. Much of this started with the Jimmy Carter era’s “Community Reinvestment Act.” President Clinton signed into law further legislation that helped beef up Carter’s act and made bad loans even more accessible to people who had no business being in the housing market. Now I’m all for people having a decent place to live and raise their children, but a family can live in an apartment or a small house as opposed to their dream home if that’s what their financial situation dictates. If you have an issue with slum lords and/or the condition of low income housing (and we certainly do), laws should be passed to deal with those problems directly rather than lowering the bar for home ownership in general.
So people got loans they could never pay back. More and more homes were built and sold. Home values went up and up so the people who couldn’t afford these houses to begin with were able to borrow more money against the value of their home to buy more things they couldn’t afford. On and on it went until the real estate bubble burst and everything came tumbling after.
Now I promised earlier that I would show you how corrupt capitalism played a role in this as well, so here it goes. Once forced into poor banking practices the bankers found a way to profit immensely of off these bad loans (capitalism at work). They decided to lend people all the money they needed, even more than they needed actually. They would then collect their commissions on the loans upfront rather than waiting for the “investment” to prove viable or god forbid turn a profit. Because after all, one bad banking/financial policy deserves another (I think this statement is at the top of Barney Frank’s stationary). And with little to no federal oversight from the lefts favorite punching bag, President Bush, this greedy exploitation of a terrible yet feel good government policy went unchecked.
Now you know what really happened and how the largest fault lies in our government’s intervention in matters that are way above its pay grade. A control/power hungry rabble comprised mostly of lawyers and career politicians stuck their nose where it didn’t belong and now we have the biggest economic crisis since the great depression. The good news is that their plan to save us from it is more of the same big government nationalization nonsense. It relies almost entirely on big brothers abilities rather than the free markets. If you objectively look at both of their track records I think you’ll see that we’d be better off betting on the Knicks to go to the NBA finals this year than putting all of our eggs in the government’s basket. But chin up, the government now owns a 40% stake in Citibank (by the way you can say that’s not the nationalization of bank all you want, but that doesn’t make it so). And the best news yet has to be that Vice President Joe Biden, another career lawyer/politician with little to no real business experience, is in charge overseeing the execution/implementation of this massive “stimulus” package.
Somewhere in heaven George Washington, Ayn Rand, and Ronald Reagan must be crying on each other’s shoulders.
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