John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods Market, has written an article at the Wall Street Journal on The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare. It is good to see someone from the business world pointing out that there are better ways. Part of the problem with this whole health care debate is that President Obama’s side wants you to think that we currently have a free market. They then try to convince you that the free market doesn’t work. The problem is that health care doesn’t happen in a free market. To name a few obvious intrusions into health care that manipulate the market with easy money and also add unnecessarily regulation we have the Food and Drug Administration, Medicare and Medicaid to just name the government intrusions that first pop into my mind. Let’s quit pretending the market is currently free and maybe realize that some of these past ideas created the current problems.
I first saw this story on the Campaign for Liberty blog in the article, Health Care, Whole Foods, and Consumer Choice. Andrew Ward points to the progressives that have now vowed to boycott Whole Foods. All those against ObamaCare should consider increasing their shopping there.
President Obama said the following in his recent town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire:
They do it all the time. If you think about it, UPS and Fed-Ex are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems…. there is nothing inevitable about this somehow destroying the private marketplace. As long as it is not set up where the government is being subsidized by the taxpayers so that even if they are providing a good deal, we keep having to pony up more and more money.
Lew Rockwell has written an article, Obama and the Post Office, in which he shows how that Obama’s simple admission gets to the heart of the problem. If the government run and supported Post Office can’t stop losing money, how does anyone expect health care to be different? As Rockwell points out the only reason the Post Office accomplished anything (while still losing money) is that the law prohibits any competition in certain areas of it’s business.
When the government can’t compete in an area of business, laws are passed to either make the competition illegal or at least lots more difficult.
The entire text of President Obama’s town hall meeting can be found at the New York Times with the statements mentioned here being located at page 9.
The book Pillars of Prosperity is a collection of speeches and essays by Ron Paul that lay out his “views of the proper role of government, namely that it should serve only to protect the life and property of its citizens.” In a 1984 speech (page 3) he shows the folly of big government and how it is perpetuated by the politicians. The problems of big government stem from the ease in which they are duped into supporting bad policy. Ron Paul points out that:
the politician, per se, is a lot less important than he appears. He is basically a puppet of public opinion that reflects the prevailing ideas of the intellectual and thought leaders.
Bob Inglis, the Republican congressman from South Carolina, gives an excellent example of this in his votes for the bailout bill. He rejected sound economics that predicted the crisis. He rejected free market solutions that would have eliminated the problem. He failed to realize that current government involvement by congress and the fed means that we have nothing more than a centrally planned “free market” (socialism). He said that doing something was better than nothing while blindly following the socialist elite who said that the bailout was the only way.
Unfortunately as Ron Paul continues to explain:
Political success is the single goal that drives participants in our political system. No invitations to participants are sent to men of principle, upholders of equal rights, and defenders of the Constitution. Determined political aspirations under today’s circumstances are key to achieving a successful political career—the career being an end in itself. We must be aware that this system of politics is not conducive to bringing about changes necessary to solve our problems. The legislative and political intrigues that control the system for the benefit of the special interests must one day come to an end if personal liberty is to be restored.
We all must realize that no President or member of Congress will ever save us from our problems. Central planning to prevent chaos will always turn into centrally planned chaos. This chaos makes the politican think that he just needs to do more and that is always the wrong answer.
Lew Rockwell has written a new article, Joe the Outlaw. He points out that in the current presidential campaign:
one interesting point has emerged: the archetype chosen to represent mainstream America turns out to be a thorough-going outlaw in the best sense of that term. In this, he is a symbol of the age. We can look forward to the creation and emergence of ever more people like this in the coming years, as the state tightens its grip over every aspect of American life. We will all soon be outlaws.
Joe the Plumber according to recent news report is not a licensed plumber in a state that requires a license for anyone to be a plumber. Lew Rockwell makes the excellent point that:
The real goal of licensing is to create a professional cartel. Fewer providers means higher wages for those with licenses. It is all about boosting income by restricting competition. This is of course a violation of human rights because it impinges on the fundamental freedom of association.
Having such guilds or unions by themselves wouldn’t be such a problem if the government didn’t get involved. The lack of competition is created and the free market abolished when the state gets involved to enforce such restrictions. Lew Rockwell points out that:
There was a time when entry into these fields was governed by the free market, and the system worked fine (contrary to legend). But the big players in these industries sought and obtained state privileges to officially license service providers. It was an income-boosting tactic and it worked. (emphasis added)
The article goes on to discuss the taxes that Joe the Plumber still owes and how this demonstrates an attack by the state on private property. I highly recommend that you read the whole article.
He concludes by saying that Joe
is an outlaw in the same sense that our founders were outlaws. He lives outside the regulations of the state because these regulations attack his freedom and property. It was to end systems such as this that the American revolution came to be. And yet we find ourselves back in exactly the same system, and one incredibly worse in every way.
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