Basic to the current non-discussion of economics in this country is the apparent division over the idea of "Choice." What is clear is that socialists believe that free choice is inefficient and expensive. Choice allows money to move to unneeded areas in the culture and encourages inefficient and expensive competition through infrastructure and management that could be better used elsewhere. This is not a mistrust of the producer, who is simply following the consumer's preferences, it is a basic mistrust of the consumer himself, the citizen, and his ability to choose. This has serious and far-reaching, if rarely discussed, implications.
So the Left's mantra of "choice" seems quite limited to areas of abortion and sexual preference; in other, broader areas it is simply not to be trusted.
Free markets adherents, on the other hand, believe choice--and its handmaiden, competition--brings down prices and increases both availability and efficiency.
What is unspoken here is the one thing freedom does not do: It does not inherently help the inept and the disinterested. It might inadvertently raise their standard of living but it does not target them. Nor does it solve the question that is rising in most of the countries that the American socialists point to for guidance: Responsibility.
Adam Smith believed that the free culture had some responsibility to the unable, but he also thought that all had a responsibility to the free society. The Left does not think we are up to it.
So the Left's mantra of "choice" seems quite limited to areas of abortion and sexual preference; in other, broader areas it is simply not to be trusted.
Free markets adherents, on the other hand, believe choice--and its handmaiden, competition--brings down prices and increases both availability and efficiency.
What is unspoken here is the one thing freedom does not do: It does not inherently help the inept and the disinterested. It might inadvertently raise their standard of living but it does not target them. Nor does it solve the question that is rising in most of the countries that the American socialists point to for guidance: Responsibility.
Adam Smith believed that the free culture had some responsibility to the unable, but he also thought that all had a responsibility to the free society. The Left does not think we are up to it.
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