A Eulogy for the Free Market

So I voted for McCain, but America apparently, is far too fascinated with Obama's sense of "destiny" and "progress" to see that the only hope he offers them is the hope of socialism's failures in what amounts to a rejection of free market economics.

And while I never thought I'd advocate anything that anyone from Berkley believes in, Anthony Gregory has the right idea (though he may take it to the least logical conclusion): the only true way to regulate life and liberty is the market. The market is the ultimate tool and device to arbitrate between different values for everything from the most mundane toaster to our most precious comodity: time.

But in overwhelming numbers, the American people have spoken, so we are to believe. And their mandate (at least that of those who voted) seems clear: rid us of the oppression of the free market ! Deliver us from the hands of hard work and lead us from the Valley of Self Reliance and Personal Responsibility. Certainly Peggy Joseph and those like her fear no bill collectors now that their messiah has arrived with a Harvard Law Degree and meticulously tailored suit.

Economic instability caused by further government tampering in what is already a mixed economy has made people desperate. The most popular scapegoat? - the free market. The can't afford health care, so it's the market's fault. Instead of addressing the problem head on, and admitting that healthcare hasn't been free market since WWII, and that a restoration of the market would undoubtedly correct these problems, Obama appeals to their fears to gain trust.

Then he appeals to their sense of entitlement to gain support. He tells them of a world where all Americans are united, because we're all already the same anyway:

[T]he struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; . . . the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation. [Yes We Can" speech in New Hampshire]

I'm sure what Obama failed to ask his new constituency was if they wanted to live in a world where the dreams of everyone's children are the same - and turn out the same. Would America be ok if we took money from the rich to give to the poor, bankrupted industry, and slowed innovation, as long as everyone was in on the deal? Would it be willing to accept, under Nationalized Health Care, a shorter amount of one-on-one time with one's doctor as long as everyone got the same shortened visit? Reduced survival rates as long as everyone had that same dismal chance?

So let me get this straight America, what you're really saying is that if you can't afford to send your son or daughter to a good college, then no one should?

So what can America's savior really bring them if not mediocrity? Swarming in with a Harvard Law Degree and an impeccably tailored suit may fool some, but it won't fool the invisible hand. Much like Engals and Marx, who were never members of the proletariat, if all conflict is truly rooted in class struggle, then it is arguably that suit and that degree, if not exactly the fact that he has gone from the citizen demanding change to the President of the most powerful country on earth, that makes him a member of the ill-fated bourgeois. And that's just the trouble then isn't it - America wants to have her cake and eat it too. They want you and I and everyone to help them get out of poverty and even out of the middle class. And to do it, they are totally fine with forcibly taking from those who have what they want - money, success, and possessions. But when they get to that 250K cut off, America will want the tax hikes gone.

Tough talk America. So you don't really hate poverty than do you - you hate success, or at least some one else's. It's been said Capitalism and communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: 'No man should have so much.' The capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: 'All men should have so much.

Trust me - his daughters are going Ivy when they grow up.