Ron Baker on Escaping the Tyranny of Time

Brian Wesbury on capitalist

Brian Wesbury on capitalist:

“In the year 1000, the average infant could expect to live

about 24 years. A third died in the first year of life. Hunger

and epidemic disease ravaged the survivors. By 1820, life

expectation had risen to 36 years in the west, with only

marginal improvement elsewhere. After 1820, world

development became much more dynamic. By 2003, income

per head had risen nearly ten-fold, population six-fold. Per

capita income rose by 1.2 per cent a year: 24 times as fast as in

1000-1820. Life expectation increased to 76 years in the west

and 63 in the rest of the world.” Angus Maddison, Contours of

the World Economy.

To paraphrase - for 1800 years, progress was virtually nonexistent;

then it accelerated sharply. It takes a severe case of

denial for someone to ignore these lessons of history. What

they show is that when freedom prevails, the ingenuity and

inventiveness of people creates incredible wealth. This is the

true source of improvement in the human condition.

The US Constitution was crucial in the process of freedom.

It established a new country with protected property rights. The

Declaration of Independence declared the “unalienable Rights”

of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” It also declared

that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive

of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish

it, and to institute new Government….”

Yes, the US has its history with slavery and women’s

suffrage, but the Civil War, and 13th and 19th Amendments to

the Constitution fixed those wrongs. It wasn’t easy, but the

system worked. No system of social and economic

organization has done more to lift living standards than the US

system of “free market capitalism.” No system of governance

has improved the lives of so many people.

So, why is this system under attack? Have we uncovered

problems with free market capitalism that are the equivalent of

slavery and women’s suffrage? President Obama thinks so. In

a speech last week, he called belief in capitalism “blind faith.”

He said this philosophy, of letting people “fend for themselves”

has “failed.” He added that “people are frustrated, they’re

anxious, they’re scared about the future. [But] now is not the

time to quit....We’ve been through worse.... It took time to free

the slaves. It took time for women to get the vote.”

This is the Progressive’s mantra – “Capitalism is unjust,

unfair...A new system must be put in its place and this takes

time.” There is only one problem with this logic. It’s not really

progress and it has never, ever worked. Today’s progressives

are the ones that ask for blind faith. They want people to

believe that they have finally figured out how to do it right

But this is just wishful thinking. Every economic system,

no matter how it is described, is a system that distributes

resources among competing interests. In a Progressive system,

government officials control this process. In a free market

system, resources flow to those who use them best to improve

the lives of others. The market votes every day on these

products and services and the successful ones are given more

resources. To prove how fluid this system is, more businesses

fail each year than succeed.

This is not true of government. Once started, government

programs rarely fail. The system perpetuates them with more

money and more resources. The waste increases over time until

it becomes so overwhelming that the entire system fails. The

Roman Empire, the Soviet Union, Greece, California and

Illinois are all the evidence needed.

The real problem with the economy these days it that we

have moved too far away from free market capitalism. As

government spending has increased, so has unemployment.

This is not a mystery; the bigger the government, the smaller

the private sector and the less dynamic the economy. If there is

any emancipation needed these days it’s from the government,

not from capitalism".

Quote from Brian Wesbury

In a free market system, resources flow to those who use them best to improve the lives of others. The market votes every day on these products and services and the successful ones are given more resources. To prove how fluid this system is, more businesses fail each year than succeed.

Brian Wesbury

Chief Economist at First Trust