Round 3 — Government Regulation and the Free Market

Well folks, this is an election year.  This guarantees we will disagree on many things but please heed this bit of advice – wear boots!  The Republican Party likes to claim that they are “originalist” and that they know the intentions that the Founding Fathers had when they penned the US Constitution. This is frequently their justification for doing EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE from what the documents actually say.  They like to try to scare us into believing that the country is on the verge of destruction and that we are straying from the Founders’ intentions but lets really look at some of these claims.

Nothing better distinguishes the so called “left” from the so called “right” than the issue of government regulation.  Republicans believe an unregulated free market can solve all problems, including alleviating poverty but most would aggressively oppose the true definitions of a Free Market penned by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations.  You see, Adams argued all the markets assets to freely move from less to more profitable occupations or areas, the competitive mechanism constantly restores prices to these “natural” levels.  This inevitably results in some institutions demise and dissolution.  People like Donald Trump, who would be destitute but for his exploitation of bankruptcy legislation (a protectionist regulation) argue for a system they really do not want. 

The Founding Fathers understood this.  They had experienced Mercantilism first hand.  They saw the destructive effects of unfettered markets driven by political special interests. 

Here’s Thomas Jefferson on banks: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies” John Adams believed that “property monopolized or in possession of a few is a curse to mankind.” Ben Franklin went even further, writing that: “no man ought to own more property than needed for his livelihood; the rest, by right, belonged to the state.” It is safe to say all of them believed that free markets require a great deal of regulation in order to meet people’s needs.  The founders DID NOT WANT a laisse faire market, they wanted stability.

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