Margaret Thatcher

Good morning all!
     I would like to talk about an article I recently read by Syndicated columnist Rich Lowery entitled "America needs to find its Thatcher". With all due respect to Mr. Lowery, he is conservatively delusional.
     To summarize his article, Lowery compares the U.S. of today with pre-Margaret Thatcher England. England, in his words, had become "an embarrassing wreck" and Margaret Thatcher, when elected Prime Minister in 1979, set the country to rights by implementing conservative policies such as cutting taxes, privatizing industries and deregulating the financial industry. Lowery praises Thatcher for refusing to give in to the feeling of defeatism that prevailed during that time and for her "unyielding rejection of British decline". Lowery would like to see "a Thatcher-like figure" in the Republican presidential field (for the 2012 election), one that rejects the idea of America's decline and would put us on the path to economic glory.
     Whereas Thatcher's attitude was commendable, her financial reforms were the same old conservative story. She subscribed to the mistaken belief that a free-market economy is self regulating and, if left alone (no government intervention) will always create a prosperous economic environment. How has that worked in the past? Not very well, I dare say.
     Privitization, by its very nature, brings capital into the economic system. This in itself, creates an artificial boom where everyone seems to profit. Add to this the deregulation of the markets and the banks, and a whole new level of investing becomes available, a good portion of which, by default, is marginally unethical at best. Everyone wins. At least for a while. A boom. A bubble. Then a crash. We have seen this cycle over and over, the most recent crash being in 2008, and economists spend countless hours attempting to disect the process in order to find a way back to the boom. Instead of searching for a particular piece of the process that malfunctioned and acted as a catalyst, I have to believe that the problem is the process itself.    
     I have a bad habit of taking a complicated issue, trimming the fat and looking at it as simply as possible. Oversimplification can be dangerous at times, but it has served me well so far, so maybe you can bear with me. I like to compare free-market capitalism to a game of cards. In order for one player to win, another player has to lose. Too simple?
     Ok, let's try another one. Cars. Unregulated free-market capitalism is a race car and socialism is the family station wagon. The race car is shiny, glamorous, sleek and sexy. The wagon is somewhat drab, boring, in fact, but relatively solid. The race car will do 100 mph and the wagon has a top speed of 50 mph. Mr. and Mrs. Capitalist load their children into the race car and off they go. Mr. and Mrs. Socialist and family climb into the wagon and they hit the road. Both families roll along the freeway towards their respective holiday destinations, the race car screaming at 100 mph and the wagon plodding along at 50 mph. The Capitalists, hooping and hollering and reveling in the fact that they are speeding past all other traffic, thumb their noses at the wagon and it's silly occupants far behind and fail to notice the sharp turn ahead. Unsurprisingly, they are unable to negotiate the turn, veer off the roadway and come to a halt as the reult of an ugly crash. The Socialists, still unceremoniously plodding along at 50 mph, reach their destination safely. At the end of the day, both vehicles averaged 50 mph, but the occupants of the wagon suffered no injuries and will be able to resume their trip on the following day. The race car will have to be rebuilt before the Capitalists can resume their trip and their casualties dealt with. Or, more typically, left on the roadside for dead. 
     Do you catch my meaning or do I have to bludgeon you with the tortoise and the hare story?
     Did I mention that the major contributor to Britian's financial hardships pre-Margaret Thatcher was the fighting of two really big wars and not the result of wild and crazy social programs?
     I'll stop for now.......

ejgw