US Economics and Capitalism - Why Have We Forgotten?

One of the major problems with having populistthe books.
type politicians or even a president is that theyNow the media and the population is telling
are only as strong politically as their poll numbersgovernment to put more rules and more
are with the population. If the population startsregulations on business, rather than simply
demanding something, then they need to jumpenforcing the current rules, which would have
and they need to ask how high. Unfortunately, theprevented the problems in the first place. We
minds of the masses has been molded by themust not forget that capitalism is what created
media and any time the media makes a bigthis great nation, and those nations that are
controversy or chaotic scene out of any event insocialist countries have not done nearly as well as
our society; the voters demand that the politiciansthe United States of America.
do something immediately.Yes, it is amazing that we are not listening to Ayn
What has happened is the media and manyRand's obvious warnings against attacks on free
people that really do not understand economicsmarkets. Of course, she wasn't the only one to
have blamed capitalism and the businesswarn us; Milton Friedman, Adam Smith, Ludwig
community for all the things that have happenedvon Mises, and many still alive today. The Ayn
in the global crisis economic meltdown. This isRand Institute newsletter noted that sales of
unfortunate because, a lot of what happened is"Atlas Shrugged" were at an all time high.
due to bad policy, regulations, and the inability ofPersonally, I am not surprised a bit. So, think on
government to enforce the regulations already onthat.