Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Economic Poison

Economic Poison
By Lash LeRoux

Those who believe we can improve our free market system by integrating within it limited socialist policies, fail to realize such policies undermine and subvert our entire economic system. If a teaspoon of cyanide were added to a glass of water, you would not drink that water. Why? Because you know that no matter how minuscule the amount of poison added, the damage is done. Just as even a drop of such a substance spreads and perverts the entire glass of water, so, too, does even the smallest and most benign of socialist policies corrupt our whole free market system.

To prove this point, we need look no further than our current economic recession. This downturn was precipitated by a crash in the housing market instigated by a record number of borrowers defaulting on their home loans. This following a decade where home ownership in the United States was at an all-time high. We dig a little deeper and we find the misguided hand of government in the cause and effect of this scenario. We can quite easily trace our current trouble back to the Clinton administration and their advocacy of the “Fair Housing Act.”

This legislation ushered in a policy of mandated mortgages for minorities and low income citizens. Liberals championed this program as a means of economic equality. However, they failed to recognize that it wasn’t prejudice in the free market system that prohibited minorities and low income citizens from owning homes, it was their lack of any ability to pay for said properties. For liberals, that point was insignificant. As a result, financial institutions found themselves holding a large number of high risk loans in order to meet government mandates. When it became apparent that those debts could not be satisfied, our entire financial market became unstable. Of course, our liberal friends are quick to blame corporate “greed” for this implosion of our capitalist system, but we know in reality the wheels were set in motion long ago by politicians who sought to take from the “haves” and give to the “have nots” in the name of social and economic justice.

Yet, how is it just to provide for on group of citizens on the backs of another group of citizens? Our free market system, known as capitalism, works so well because it rewards those who contribute to society through hard work, sacrifice and entrepreneurship. But when politicians seek to provide these same rewards to non-contributors, they are poisoning America’s economic water.


July 17, 2009

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Socialism Vs. Capitalism



Socialism Vs. Capitalism
By Lash LeRoux

Ronald Reagan noted in 1979, “It isn’t unfair to say that today the world is divided between those who believe in the free market place and those who believe in government control and ownership of the economy.” America now finds itself governed by a presidential administration that fundamentally believes government control is necessary to maintain a strong economy and is the bedrock of effecting their idea of social justice. And by social justice they mean the absolute right of every person to enjoy the same quality of life and standard of living despite their individual contribution to society. The trouble with this unrealistic ideology is that it suffocates the ambitions of those who dare to dream and achieve, while rewarding the most indolent among us.

What incentive is there to contribute to a society that confiscates the fruits of your labor in order to meet the needs of non-contributors? You see, government can not succeed in controlling the economy without controlling the producers in the economy. Therein lies the erosion of individual liberty. If we surrender our individual freedom for what government deems is the “greater good”, we will have lost the heart of the American Spirit: Liberty. True, liberty does not guarantee that your wants and needs will always be met. However, liberty does guarantee your right to pursue your dreams. And should you, in that pursuit, find wealth and prosperity, you do so knowing your success is the result of hard work and self sacrifice.

Socialism knows no such reward for personal financial risk. The question we must ask ourselves is: do we wish to bequeath to our children an America of guaranteed mediocrity or an America of extraordinary opportunity?


July 17, 2009