Meddling And Unintended Consequences

Whatever you do, don't let anyone ever hear me say this. I think the ideas that liberals have sound really nice. I agree with most of their ideas on the surface. Free healthcare for everyone. Very good idea. A growing economy that does not affect the environment. I am all for it. The list goes on and on. Liberals get painted with the "compassionate" brush and rightly so. Their ideas bring a warm and fuzzy feeling to the heart.

But, we conservatives have two fundamental disagreements with liberals. Today, I will address one of them.

1) We don't trust politicians. They are only looking out for themselves. They are not "compassionate" liberals or conservatives. They are self-serving megalomaniacs that don't deserve any power, with a few exceptions. So, while I like liberal ideas, I can never trust a liberal politician who all day everyday says give me more money, give me more power, let's get more people dependent on the government, and I will make it all better. Wrong.

2) This is the one I would like to address today. There are consequences to every action. You cannot do anything economically, politically, anythingally that does not have a consequence. It is like trying to squeeze one of those stress-relief balls. You push in on one spot, but another one pokes out. Let me know if this has ever happened to you. You have a rigid circular structure (lots of construction/home repair items are rings of metal). You get a dent in that structure so it is no longer a circle. Have you ever tried to make it a circle again? You can't. You push one side in and the other side pokes out. It will NEVER go back to it's perfect form, no matter how careful or thoughtful or dexterous you are. It is an unintended consequence.

Those exist in politics as well. When the government implements (sounds better than "force", right) policies in a country, there are consequences and unintended consequences. Let's get to the point. The cash for clunkers program. What a success!! The Obama administration and Congress are just drooling over themselves because of the success of the program. I too have mixed feelings on the program. On one hand it promotes freedom of choice, gets people buying cars, gets old unsafe cars off the road, and there are a slew of other consequences. But, when you push on one spot, another spot pokes out. Here is the article from msnbc.com.

Unintended Consequences of Cash For Clunkers

So, now is the program a success? Used car prices are skyrocketing (not going up, but skyrocketing). Used parts prices are skyrocketing. Anyone that is not driving a brand new car is going to have to pay more money to get parts or a new or used car. Is that fair to us? No. That is what happens when the government meddles with the economy.

What is the answer? I won't drub you over the head with conservative ideology, but the answer is the free market. It is the only thing that is unbiased, and the only thing that allows true freedom. In the free market we are ALL free to choose for ourselves what we want to do. When the government meddles, some of us are the beneficiaries and some of us bear the brunt of the unintended consequences.

POSTED BY The Conservative Conquistador