October 31, 2011

Analysing campaigning with Bastiat


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/25/gops-perry-promises-25-million-jobs-in-first-ad/


    The above mentioned article discusses how one of the current GOP candidates Rick Perry has promised 2.5 million jobs in his ad. I think that the Austrian school would agree that much of what Perry proposes could be beneficial to the current climate of jobs and the like. With ideas like removing certain regulations from energy industries and lowering corporate taxes I think that a reduction in government in these ways falls in line with Bastiat’s ideals expressed in this weeks reading. I think it is interesting to look at an article such as this after reading Bastiat and his call to look at the things unseen in the economy and evaluate every angle.
    I agree that when government opts to use its force to have an effect on the economy it will bog things up and add red tape. However my thoughts had never before gone as far as Bastiat’s thought that if government takes money from its citizens and doesn’t yield results it is essentially the same as a thief coming and taking the same sum out from under the citizen’s nose.
    I asked myself about what things are going on in this article that are difficult for me to see? Furthermore, I questioned how these regulations were imposed on the public and how they are paid for. The most intriguing quote from the article is this:"I'll eliminate President Obama's regulations that hurt other sources of domestic energy, like coal and natural gas," Perry says in the ad. "That will create jobs and reduce our reliance on oil from countries that hate America.
    "I'll eliminate President Obama's regulations that hurt other sources of domestic     energy, like coal and natural gas," Perry says in the ad. "That will create jobs and     reduce our reliance on oil from countries that hate America."
It seems that Perry is advocating the removal of bad policy. The interesting point of view I see is that it is important to remember that these policies are enacted and enforced through the expenditure of our tax dollars. Could it be that the money we give the government is utilized to stifle the market through regulations causing us taxpayers to fund our own detriment?
    I would be a fool if I said that I knew the appropriate level of government involvement in our lives but to think of the two options of where money I earn ends up, in my hands or in the coffers of some government official, I must ask what its being done with my money? Furthermore, do these uses fall in line with how I would personally utilize said money? I cannot know the extent that my money is being utilized by the government in a fashion that runs counter to my own preferences, but I personally would prefer it if my money didn’t contribute to more regulations that add to the companies costs of doing business. I think that if companies did not have to expend their resources on complying with these regulations then they would choose to spend the funds on hiring more workers or developing more capital that would allow for more efficient production. All of these things would inevitably end up benefiting me in addition to me not paying as much for taxes.

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