In Mitt Romney’s speech announcing his candidacy, he said, “we are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy.”
First things first. I don’t exactly think Mitt Romney has any free market bona fides considering the state-wide takeover of healthcare he led in Massachusetts, which served as a beta release of Obamacare. Abridging the freedom of contract and forcing the individual mandate at the state level, as opposed to doing so at the federal level, does not make you a free marketer. He’s posing as the cure to our long march towards socialism, but he is part of the cancer.
But my real issue with his statement is, that by extension, it means we currently have a free market economy and are only just now approaching the point where that won’t be the case anymore. I beg to differ. We don’t have a free market economy. Sometimes calling it a mixed economy feels generous.
Our economy is manipulated (poorly) from the biggest overarching pieces like interest rates and monetary supply, to the smallest details like requiring a license to be a florist, to be an interior decorator, to braid hair, or to have a lemonade stand. Let’s explore just a taste of the unfree parts of our market that are in between these extremes.
- We are restricted to only buying health insurance in the state which we reside. Is this not ridiculous? What would a grapefruit cost a Minnesotan if they weren’t allowed to buy them from Florida or Texas?
- We have a government school monopoly that controls nearly 90% of the market, and that market share is increasing. By the way, Standard Oil was broken up with just a 68% market share (not that I believe the company should have been broken up). Can you imagine if supermarkets were like public schools, if groceries were paid for by taxes, and you were assigned a store based on where you live?
- Our executives have to be wary of being fired by government officials, such as our CEO-in-chief, rather than answering to customers and share holders.
- Winners and losers are picked by government officials, instead of being allowed to succeed or fail depending on their value to consumers. Obvious examples here are the bank and auto bailouts, the latter of which has ended up costing taxpayers $14 billion. Let’s not forget all of the subsidized industries and products like ethanol, the Chevy Volt, certain window manufacturers, and the housing market in general.
- Contracts and bankruptcy law are sidestepped for the benefit of unsecured creditors (i.e. unions) over the rights of secured creditors.
- Officials try to dictate where manufacturing plants can open in order to pander to unions.
Of course, in a country where 1 in 3 need government permission to do their job, as opposed to 1 in 20 sixty years ago, I could go on and on. We aren’t “inches away” from losing our free market status. We blew past that line ages ago and we are now watching the mile markers zip by.