An Op-Ed on "Doing Something"

I have an op-ed in today's Washington Examiner entitled "The 'forgotten people' are already doing something for economic recovery."  A brief excerpt:

Those of us critical of the stimulus package are very much in favor of action, we just differ on who knows best what action to take.  Every day in the market, millions of products get made, shipped and sold, from the simplest pencil to the most complicated computer.

Individuals, households, and companies use exchange, contracts, prices and the other institutions of the marketplace to coordinate their behavior without central direction.  All of those people are "doing something" to create wealth, but because they do it without a plan or package or program from Washington, they are often overlooked when the politicians take center stage.

When Obama asserts that only government has enough resources to get us out of the current situation, he conveniently overlooks the fact that the resources government makes use of are created by those same forgotten people.

Comments

[Jackie Chiles]

Excellent letter. Keep it up.

[liberty]

I think this is the best article I have read on the stimulus yet. Almost every line in there is brilliant, succinct and hits it home. Nice work!

[Bob Murphy]

Good article, Steve. I also took on the "do nothing" charge, but I went the conventional route of government policy recommendations:

http://mises.org/story/3316

[Sheldon Richman]

Excellent, though it doesn't hurt to remind folks that there's much the government should undo. But you are right. Even if the government does nothing, the economy will wake up because people have ends to achieve and will find ways to achieve them, government obstacles be damned. Of course when this happens, Obama and his co-conspirators in Congress will seize the credit.

[Chris Schandevel]

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We’re looking to build a solid group of conservatives who’ll frequent our site regularly and contribute to some good discussions. The site gets updated daily with breaking news, so you’ll want to check back often, or you can just sign up for our News Feed.

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Thanks!

[Doug Thorson]

Great post Steve! This is the kind of "plain English" argument that needs to be made that will begin to stem the tide toward socialism.

Keep-up the great work.

May we reproduce this post on our blog at www.forfreedomssake.com? If so, besides givint you credit, do we need to get permission from The Washington Examiner?

[Steve Horwitz]

Doug,

Let me check my contract with the Examiner and get back to you on Monday.

And thanks to all of the others for your kind words.

[Matt Rees, Brno, CZ]

I totally agree, with the except of the comment about "the simplest pencil."
You guys being good defenders of the free market system, I shouldn't have to point this out:
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/i-pencil/

[Doug Thorson]

Thanks Steve, I look forward to hearing back from you.

[Steve Horwitz]

Well Matt, that line was an intentional homage to I, Pencil, which is how I start my intro class on the very first day. The fact that you caught the reference is exactly why it's there. And you should have read "simplest" with the requisite wink. ;)

[Stella]

It is probably true, and I have yelled at the TV enough to say that I agree with you. However, there is a huge populist tide that is chanting "stimulus package" and neither Obama, nor McCain, nor Paul could have gotten away with *not* at least going through the motions of this type of policy. It's sad, really.