Throughout the course of human events, mankind has been forced to confront extraordinary challenges and reaffirm values long considered fundamental to the human experience. Given the current economic climate, little thought is needed to recognize that at this moment in history Americans are at such a crossroads. Today, as in the past, there are loud clamors for a rejection of traditional American sensibilities.
Rather than embrace the economic policies that have put the United States and its people at the forefront of unprecedented prosperity and economic expansion, these pseudo-socialist forces advocate a return to a bygone era of excessive government regulation. Such policy ideas are not new, but are nevertheless just as dangerous as they were during the 1970s. They put regulations before ingenuity, cultivate stagflation rather than prosperity, and trust bureaucrats more than the American people.
To be sure the current economic situation is indeed urgent, but sacrificing long-held values so as to assuage the concerns of Congress or satisfy the incessant predictions of doom from the chattering classes in the media is not the answer. Mike Wolovick in his op-ed last week rightly pointed out that short-term thinking on the part of both homeowners and businesses was partly responsible for the current financial condition our nation is in.
But our agreements end there.
Instead of looking beyond the immediate, short-term calls for big government regulation that passes for legitimate policy proposals in the halls of congress today, Wolovick and countless others have become a part of precisely the same mentality that threatens our nation's financial solvency. That is, the notion that present-day conditions should dictate long-term policy initiatives.
When Ayn Rand wrote, "Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution...the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off," she was not referring to trillion-dollar bailouts and arbitrary executive pay caps as a means of keeping "its hands off." It's ironic that although she passed away years before Reagan's economic policies bore fruit, she possesses a far more profound understanding of what values American economic policy are based on than some of our current political leaders.
Much argument can and has taken place over the bailouts of big business. Though there is something to be said for letting bad companies that made bad decisions endure the consequences for their conduct, far more can be said against letting government grow so that it may be better equipped to handle both the current and future financial crises.
The entire point of American capitalism is that it allows the individual, not the government, to decide as freely as absolutely possible how and when to spend their money. To do so without restrictions placed upon them by Washington bureaucrats and to keep the rewards of such decisions with as little taxation as possible has long been a cornerstone of American capitalism.
To sacrifice such values for a brief sense of stability and justice ensures neither.
Jose Cespedes and Robert Flores are members of the Class of 2012.