Columnist spews economic nonsense

There are probably some Americans who blame “capitalism” for our current economic woes.  Maybe they would also like to elect a communist.  (Maybe we did?)

What annoys me about Fitzgerald’s account of his encounter with a communist is that he can’t elucidate a single reason why the "communist/socialist” is wrong.  So, I thought I’d help out a little.  Here’s why he’s wrong:

1.  Our economic problems were caused by government policy.  By those who thought they could determine (with their own superior minds) what the interest rates should be, what lending standards ought to be, who should be “allowed” to build houses and where.  Even the color of houses roofs and the shape of windows was specified by some commission.  All of these policies restricted competition and drove up the price of housing.  (City councils would often talk about how great it is they are “boosting” the “values” of property, that is, making housing more costly, driving the bubble.) All instead of letting people make their own choices in a free market.

It’s not a failure of “capitalism.”  In fact it’s exactly the opposite, we tried to “help” or “correct” capitalism.  Is it any wonder that the places hit worse in the “foreclosure crisis” are exactly the places that had the most interventionist zoning and planning commissions? 

2.  The communist says that Stalin gave communism a bad name.  Just a little.  What more needs to be said?

But it wasn’t Stalin that “ruined” communism or just didn’t let it work the way it was supposed to.  Communism creates “Stalins.”  That’s the only way it works.  There is no example of “nice” communism.  Which leads directly to point 3, the real reason communism got a “bad name.”

3.  No matter where you look on planet Earth in the present time; or no matter what period of time in history you look at you’ll find that when “capitalism” was practiced mankind flourished and was most free.  And under every other system people lived in tyranny and misery. 

Have people forgotten what it was like before the Berlin wall came down?  Compare West and East Germany, North and South Korea, Haiti Vs. The Dominican Republic, The old Soviet Union and the United States.

4. No, “if Karl Marx opened a Capitalist Hall of Shame, the San Joaquin Valley would be an early inductee” only if we wanted to created a monument to the corrupting influence of Marxism.  All the “failures” listed in the article, the bailouts, the housing bubble, the politically well connected getting favor and riches – those are not capitalistic, those are the ideas of Marx and Engels!!!  By their very nature, they are government actions – decisions made by a central planning, er, I mean commission or council or legislature and imposed on people by force of law.  That is not capitalism!

It’s our straying from the principles of freedom (capitalism is freedom) that caused our current problems.  And more “communist answers” would only make things worse, as they always have.

Drawing parallels between Irish, Valley economic woes | Recordnet.com