Free Marketers Must Remain Vigilant
By Greg Blankenship Much ink has been spilled in the last year or so about the conservative movement running out of ideas. Terms like “sclerotic” have been thrown around by David Brooks of the New York Times to describe conservative think tanks. The same can be said of the conservative press, according to a New Yorker article by George Packer last May.
But as we see from the reaction of the press and our politicians to the financial crisis that currently challenges us, conservative ideas of free markets and limited government are very much in need of defending.
The broadsides from the Obama presidential campaign blaming de-regulation for the fiasco need to be addressed. After all, much of this crisis can be laid at the feet of politicians of both parties because of their meddling in the housing market. Finance professionals and investors share the blame by acting irresponsibly in their efforts to make a quick dollar and consumers for purchasing more than they can afford.
This alone should rouse the free marketeer to defend the free enterprise system by pointing out that meddling in markets set the stage, not unfettered capitalism. It also suggests that ideas such as prudence, thrift and moderation should be reinforced. Risk taking is an important part of capitalism, and bubbles are going to occur in an imperfect world. But it is moderation and rationalism at the heart of free market ideas that mitigate crises and relegates moral hazard to academic discussions rather than actual practice. Now is the time to reinforce these ideas.
Our critics in the movement seem to have put forth the idea that we’ve somehow reached the end of conservative history – an idea only too readily adopted by our friends on the left. We’ve run our course and we are bereft of ideas is how the story goes.
Yet somehow everyone seems to be missing that the other side isn’t offering anything new. The politics of the left, as Amity Shlaes informed us in The Forgotten Man, haven’t changed since FDR. Their fixes for the financial system are more of the same: Scapegoating, demonzing, increased regulation and redistribution of wealth. Once hidden behind environmentalism and other fads, the champions of statism, as a result of this crisis, have been flushed into the open.
Why should we stop defending ours ideas? Should Sen. Obama assume the presidency, he assuredly will not be a Bill Clinton or Tony Blair. Both accepted much of the Reagan and Thatcher revolutions. While some items were rolled back, none of it was wholly rejected. Obama does wholly reject the underpinnings of these revolutions. He intends to raise capital gains taxes, introduce more regulation and do nothing about some of the highest corporate income taxes in the world – all as America tries to climb out of this financial crisis and what many believe to be an inevitable recession.
High tax rates, a credit crunch, and the energy crisis were combated with our ideas in 1980. They worked. Now, we seem bent on a different approach that won’t work. At the same time we are told to try something new because the current election doesn’t look so good. I’m sorry, but that isn’t a good enough reason.
No, now is not the time to abandon our missions and our ideals for some abstract new coalition or new conservatism. This is not the end of conservative history; it’s just the beginning of a new round in the fight between liberty and statism and free marketeers should embrace this challenge.
There is an old cliché that says the Chinese symbol for both crisis and opportunity are the same. For the vigilant free marketeer we have before us a new opportunity. We should take it.
Greg Blankenship is president and founder of the Illinois Policy Institute in Springfield.
October 10, 2008 |
