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Obama’s job description (part 2)

July 28, 2009 by Alex Epstein

Yesterday I discussed how Obama and others view individual freedom as the fundamental cause of our problems, and themselves (employing government coercion) as the solution.

But in fact, our current problems come from this attitude – from the fact that intellectuals and politicians regard the results of free association and voluntary exchange among individuals as “problems” to be solved. For example, the government deemed free-market mortgage rates and lending practices (which for decades led to down payments over 20% and responsible lending and borrowing) to provide insufficiently “affordable housing” for bad credit risks. So government intervened. (See “The Government Did It.”) The carnage speaks for itself.

Freedom is not a problem, Mr. President. Coercive interference in a free society is the problem: it negates individuals’ judgment, punishes the productive, and rewards irrational behavior. Removing that interference as quickly as possible is the real problem that needs to be solved today. That’s the problem about which you should be saying “give it to me.”

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