Hugh Akston's Diner

On 1/9/09, Stephen Moore published a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years. I enjoyed Mr. Moore's piece and submitted the following to The Wall Street Journal:

During his 22 November radio broadcast, John Galt states:

“Drifters and physical laborers live and plan by the range of a day. The better the mind, the longer the range. A man whose vision extends to a shanty, might continue to build on your quicksands, to grab a fast profit and run. A man who envisions skyscrapers, will not. Nor will he give ten years of unswerving devotion to the task of inventing a new product, when he knows that gangs of entrenched mediocrity are juggling the laws against him, to tie him, restrict him and force him to fail…”

First the immediate crisis of liquidity in September that required emergency measures to get us through this “temporary” crisis… then the immediate crisis of the viability of the Big Three auto makers that required emergency measures to get us through this “temporary” crisis. Yesterday President-Elect Obama stated :

"I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible… We won’t get out of it by…relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past.

"That is why I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth. It’s a plan that represents not just new policy, but a whole new approach to meeting our most urgent challenges… It is time to finally change the ways of Washington so that we can set a new and better course for America."

Following this prelude, President Elect Obama proceeded to list the “new” spending plans with a promise that this “new” spending plan will be different in that it will “invest in what works”. An utter denial of reality. We are being extorted to deny what we think and know to be true and to believe the unreal. We are being extorted to suspend our reason and have mystic faith in “change”. We are being extorted to trust our lives to the new government.

Imagine, instead, if we heard the following yesterday:

“Stability and consistency of government policy being critical to the establishment of the trust necessary for every American to regain the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the following policies shall be implemented by the incoming Administration:

• “The current tax system, including payroll taxes, and the IRS will be eliminated effective 1 January 2011, replaced by the Fair Tax Act. This act will eliminate the gross distortion in the market caused by the government and will reward production instead of consumption;

• “The sale of Health Insurance will be disconnected from employers and shall be sold in an open market similar to auto insurance, homeowners and life insurance;

• “Pet projects / pork-barrel spending shall be outlawed. No longer will people from Montana have to pay for construction of water slides in Florida.

• “Effective 1 January 2012, the United States will return to the Gold Standard”

Too much of the blame for the current state of economic affairs finds its roots in Washington policy to suggest that more of the same will prove effective. It is a denial of reality that we can “fix” the pain with another dose of government spending morphine in the short term to get us through this “temporary” rough patch. How many more “temporary emergencies”, typically created by government intervention, must we suffer before we realize that we need to take the long view? Or, are we simply incapable or unwilling to take the long view? Are we no longer capable of building skyscrapers?