Posted on 09/30/2008 10:00:47 PM PDT by ikeonic
A colleague of mine today and I were talking about economists. I pointed her to this survey of economists compiled by Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. You will note that the economists are 48% Democrats versus 17% Republicans. Not surprisingly, most economists support Obama.
Assuming that many of the Democrats are also Keynesians and believe that government spending is good for the economy because it stimulates growth and deficits aren't so bad after all, I decided to dig a little deeper. Classical economists would argue that governments can only crowd out growth and largely function to create liquidity and regulate the money supply.
I would argue that neither laissez faire nor Keynesian economics are the proper role for government with regard to the economy. I believe there is a third way that says government does have a role in regulating the economy, much as the referees in a football game have a role in regulating the game but not to the extent that the game ceases to be competitive or the outcome is pre-determined. The playing field in both football and the economy should be free but fair.
Apparently, Friedrich Hayek, who wrote "The Road to Serfdom" and whose theories are drowned out in many college classrooms by liberal economists harping on Keynes, held beliefs not too far from my own. Hayek was not in favor of pure laissez faire. He believed, as do I, that governments could limit working hours and place other limits and regulations on business as needed. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Theodore Roosevelt, McCain's hero, created the FDA, in response to Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, and the meat packing controversy. Rather than abandoning capitalism and instituting socialism, TR merely reformed it by adding some necessary and good regulation to insure that consumers could rely on safe products.
If a democratic society elects to place restrictions on employers, I see that as being no different from member institutions of the NCAA creating a rule that says there can be no more than 11 players on the field and there is a 40 second play clock. It's called setting the rules of the game. Where I have a problem with socialists and planners is they not only want to coerce the rest of us to follow their rules, they also want to dictate the outcome of the game and pick winners and losers. In short, they want to take all the sport out of it and eliminate all competition.
When football referees are perceived to interfere with the outcome of the game, the reaction from fans is ferocious and immediate as it should be. When the federal government becomes overly meddlesome in our lives and our economy, we end up on The Road to Serfdom, better known as socialism. We stalled and sidetracked the move to socialism in the 1950s thanks to the efforts of Hayek and others like Barry Goldwater and Winston Churchill.
Once again, the world is being lured by what Barry Goldwater called the "siren song of socialism". We live in dangerous times, just as dangerous if not more dangerous than in the 1950s.
We were lucky in the 1950s because the danger we faced was easy to see and we had a steady hand in Dwight D. Eisenhower. He kept us at peace, reformed government and provided a moderating voice in opposition to creeping socialism but in favor of needed regulation. Ike understood that a careful and delicate balance was required. Even though Ike wasn't anywhere nearly as conservative as Goldwater would have liked, it's clear that Ike's moderation was far preferable to the train wreck that LBJ's Great Society and bungling in Vietnam wrought. Just like Ike, John McCain will be a steady hand and a great reformer who will be far better than the alternative, Barack Obama.
Obama would be the realization of Goldwater's worst fears... the people of the United States will be "federally born, federally housed, federally clothed, federally educated, federally supported in their occupations, and die a federal death, thereafter to be buried in a federal box in a federal cemetery."
Think Obama doesn't really feel that way? Well, he won't say it... but his campaign co-chair, Jesse Jackson Jr. has no trouble articulating the real agenda of Chicago liberals:
"After a job or an income that provides adequate economic security - and right next to universal and comprehensive health care of equal high quality - decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing stands as one of the greatest material needs of the American people.
I believe that adequate, safe, and affordable housing is a human right. As civilizations and economies develop, certain material basics (like food, shelter, health care, and education) should not be turned over completely to market forces, to a "survival of the fittest" philosophy and program. We know that in such a system, the few always wind up on top with the best and most of everything, while the many end up on the bottom with the least and worst. Such is the case with housing in America."
A vote for Obama is a vote for the "siren song of socialism." He'll lure you with a promise of a middle class tax cut that you'll never get. We're still waiting for Bill Clinton's tax cut. In the end, Obama will leave you will new entitlements we can't afford and a much higher tax bill and a much bigger federal government. Just a few more miles down the Road to Serfdom.
Looking through the cartoon booklet I started to worry that it’s later than we think.
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