A foundational cornerstone of conservative thought in relation to government and the economic system is support for the free market. A free market stands or falls on its own. Government best serves the people when it allows for risk taking to be shouldered fully by the entrepreneur. We have been away from the basic understanding of a free market economy so long it sounds almost revolutionary to bring up the reality that in a free market the risk is taken by the one who takes the initiative to start the business.
Government funding and support for risk takers is the norm in business practice and now, government functions fully as the supporter of and the risk behind almost all financial ventures. This leads to total government control with the “big brother” or “nanny state” controlling all areas of business and personal life. The mantra is, there are businesses “too big to be allowed to fail” and in order to assure their success, the government must unload tons of money into the business to assure that if it fails, only the government stands to lose money and not the individuals involved. The biggest problem is that the ones who lose are the taxpaying citizens required to fund the government with their taxes. We know with every penny given by the government to a project, there are strings that weave into cords of control choking any success unless the government decides success is in the government’s best interest.
Control by government of all areas of life is showing itself more with regulations of the insurance coverage required and the lifestyle choices individuals make. The big brother crowd in government really believes they know better how to develop a menu of meals for the masses than the individual citizens. As part of the control mechanism imbedded in “Obama care,” are requirements as to government allowed body weight and body fat content of individuals. One could argue the government is trying to look after the citizens and to assure they live longer by requiring a lifestyle and eating regimen that will fit within the government allowable guidelines. That argument falls apart when we realize the government has no right to force its way onto the personal life choices of the citizens of this free nation. It does not matter that the requirements of limiting the size of a soda may be well intended; the citizens are required to be more accountable to government functionaries to obtain what they normally would buy otherwise to quench their thirst.
In case all of this talk of government control, big brother and nanny state have you confused, the simple statement can be made for the government to get out of our life. However, we have come to be so completely dependant on the government, it is hard to make a change at this time. That being true, we are trapped in the ever slippery slope going downward into more government control of all we do. Less government, not more and bigger government is needed. We know, however, that to have less government control at this point in our republic, we must pass more legislation to reverse decisions already passed. In doing the reverse of what has already been placed into law, will in itself, require more government laws, thus we are on a failing cycle of giving up control to more government and not less government with hope to change the pattern of more government control. This is not double talk; this is the gridlock in the thinking that occurs when every new freshman class of government elected leaders are sworn into office. The newly elected officials go into office with the great hope of bringing about change and turning the wheels back to a free market economy only to be hit with the reality that to accomplish their goals they must pass new laws that will bring about more government and not less. We are at a point in our history when we must make crucial decisions about our future and our freedoms. Do we want to give up some of the support we insist the government provide to us? Do we want to continue to have our freedoms taken from us in order to allow the government to promise they will take care of us no matter what happens? We must find a way to stop this slide into total government control of all we do and are.
Ray Newman
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