February 2012 — Laissez FaireLaissez Faire

Who creates wealth, individuals or government? I discuss that and much more on the Financial Survival Network.

We often hear that we need government to intervene to prevent monopolies. But the truth is that on a free market there are no monopolies: monopolies are created by government intervention.

A bit of history is helpful. Originally the term “monopoly” referred to a special government privilege that protected a company from competition, whether through a franchise, a subsidy, or some other legal restriction on entering a field. The old East India Company, for example, had true monopoly power: the British empire would not allow any other British company to trade in the East Indies. (A modern example would be the U.S. Postal Service. If you try to compete in the delivery of first class mail, the government will put a stop to it.)

But during the 19^th century, the critics of capitalism switched the meaning of “monopoly” from a company that was protected from competition by government to a company that achieved a dominant position in a given market. Read the rest of this entry »

Our latest Forbes.com column is up:

“From cradle to grave.” So goes the motto of the entitlement state, whose creator Otto von Bismarck said: “Give the working-man the right to work as long as he is healthy, assure him care when he is sick, assure him maintenance when he is old.”

Are you bothered by the thought of government embedding itself in every aspect of your life? According to President Obama, the only alternative is “a government that tells the American people, you are on your own. If you get sick, you’re on your own. If you can’t afford college, you’re on your own. . . . That’s not the America I believe in.”

It is, however, what the America the Founding Fathers believed in. What made America great was the fact that it was the first country in history where you were on your own.

Read the whole thing.

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