The collectivist America that Ayn Rand depicts in “Atlas Shrugged” collapses in part because too few people who actually produce anything are willing to make the case for free markets.
Most galling in their silence are business leaders and innovators who, more clearly than anyone, understand that wealth redistribution is pushing the country toward a calamity that makes the Great Depression look like a 10-point drop in the Dow. They assume their acquiescence will buy favor with and protection from bureaucrats. It comes as quite a surprise when those very bureaucrats rob them of the means of production then impatiently demand that they produce anyway.
There is an electrifying moment when one innovator proclaims the truth to a public that has grown trifling and listless from years of seizing the output of the dwindling ranks of productive workers.
But it’s too late. Under twisted notions of the “public good,” taking the fruits of others’ labor is deemed not only a right but a moral imperative. This inevitably bleeds the country dry, and a nation of moochers-by-default descends into aggressive economic cannibalism.
As political trends in 2010 America track to an astonishing degree with those of Rand’s 1957 novel, the reluctance of modern business leaders and entrepreneurs to offer an unapologetic defense of liberty is horrifying, if not surprising. Many produce junk (think ethanol) but are in industries propped up and protected by subsidies or regulation. They’re not going to make waves, figuring that being in effect a subsidiary of the government – with its power to levy taxes and destroy competition – is insurance against recession. Left uncontemplated is what happens when there is nothing more to tax because government has destroyed the last financial incentive the private sector had to get out of bed in the morning.
But somebody occasionally shatters the silence. Last year, Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey told Washington to get its sorry mitts off health care. The “socially conscious” cried foul at the thought of somebody questioning government’s motives, but Whole Foods’ sales skyrocketed and demands for a boycott of the company were met with richly deserved indifference or antagonism.
Equally invigorating were recent remarks by Vance Bell, head of textile manufacturer Shaw Industries in Dalton, Ga. Bell committed the indispensable sin of accurately labeling the private sector “the primary driver of real change on environmental and social issues.” He rejected “misguided mandates and false incentives” by government – apparently a reference to the regulatory sticks and subsidy carrots that have distorted the market, rewarded failure and retarded progress.
“We’ve really done it on our own,” Bell said of the industry’s environmental work.
Now if America had 10,000 more private-sector leaders willing to back-talk the bureaucracy, we might get somewhere. The newsworthiness of Mackey’s and Bell’s comments comes, alas, from the fact that they are so isolated. Our government can ride out those blips on the radar – so long as they remain only blips – and it appears to be doing so.
Banks that were pressured by government to make home loans to people with poor credit, leading to the housing crash, are now threatened with being dismantled by the same government. The failure of the first stimulus to stimulate much besides big government is audaciously cited as proof of the need for more stimulus. The head of the Department of Health and Human Services hints that she’ll put insurers out of business if they are caught blaming ObamaCare for forcing their premiums up – i.e., if they’re caught telling the truth.
That’s not government, it’s gangsterism. If Washington wants to obliterate the line between itself and the Mafia, mightn’t it have the grace to say so?
Lots more people who actually have to meet a payroll need to make the case to the public and to the lifetime government employees in control of Washington that free-market initiative rather than top-down dictation made America great.
And they need to make it while there’s still a market left to save.
Missing the point
Can’t say as I’m surprised the president used 9/11 to scold us all about our intolerance toward Islam. But while he was carefully keeping his eye off the ball, the most dangerous Muslim regime in the world – Iran’s – continued pursuing nuclear weapons.
His lecture on American bigotry – coming on our day of national mourning for thousands of Americans slaughtered on the altar of radical Muslim bigotry – did nothing to stop Iran. Not one thing.
To reach Steve Barrett, call 423-757-6329 or e-mail sbarrett@timesfreepress.com.