The first
rule of economics is the law of supply and demand. The price of everything in a real free market
system is controlled by the consumer.
When
Government subsidizes activities that should be controlled by the free market,
they increase the price. That’s why
government subsidies were not allowed in the US Constitution.
The US
used tariffs to make the prices of foreign goods more expensive to give US
manufacturers a price advantage over foreign goods. This gave US manufacturing
a chance to develop. The US learned how to make furniture and every other
product that could be made. This
produced competition and gave all manufacturers and inventors the incentive to
make better goods than their competitors.
The US government used tariffs to fund its constitutional
responsibilities until 1913.
Tax payer
funded subsidies appeared in the 1930s with farm subsidies and earlier with
public schools and in the 1960s with healthcare and welfare. Today, government subsidizes almost
everything. Many subsidies are hidden in
the Tax Code and everywhere else. These subsidies need to be removed.
Tax
dollars should be restricted to those few tasks government can be trusted to
do. These are the “enumerated powers” in the US Constitution (as written).
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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