Time for a Turning Point: Setting a Course Toward Free Markets and Limited Government for Future Generations by Kirk Charlie & Hamachek Brent

Author:Kirk, Charlie & Hamachek, Brent [Kirk, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2016-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

Do you remember in 2015 when a privately owned business operating in a free market environment spilled millions of gallons of toxic heavy metal waste into the Animus River in Colorado? If that doesn’t sound familiar, how about when a similar group of companies contaminated the water supply in Flint, Michigan, with high levels of lead pollutants? If you don’t remember, it’s OK because neither of those events was caused by greedy business owners exploiting the environment under the flag of free enterprise. Both of those significant, environmentally harmful and life-threatening events were caused exclusively by government. Despite the facts of these cases and numerous other examples, opponents of free markets would have you believe that our environment and natural resources are deliberately and constantly being damaged and exploited for economic gain. The truth, however, is that capitalism creates its own incentives for conservation and preservation.

Critics of capitalism often point to the exploitation of the environment as a reason that it cannot be allowed to operate as an economic system unchecked by government. They cite air pollution, water contamination, deforestation of rainforests and the endangerment of species as just some of many examples. Of course, the damage done in each area adversely impacts the quality of everyone’s life, so social justice once again raises its head.

But the critics ignore the fact that today the cleanest and safest methods of production, and the nation most concerned with environmental safety, is the United States. In nations like China and India, where the government controls the direction of the economy, concerns for the environment are almost nonexistent and harmful pollutants fill the air and water supply. In Mexico, where the economy is overseen by a corrupt, often criminal government, it is not even safe for a tourist to drink the tap water.

The U.S., which has the longest running track record of embracing capitalist market solutions, also exhibits the cleanest and most environmentally-friendly means of production. Forests are not stripped bare in the United States to harvest lumber; tree farms are grown. Raw pollutants are not drained in water supplies; they are treated and cleansed before being recycled. Smoke stack emissions no longer make it dangerous to go outside on a summer day in metropolitan areas; technologies created in capitalist companies have been able to reduce sulfur content and other harmful burn off.

Critics of capitalism point to the damage caused by industry in the past as a reason to regulate it and make it “safer” in the present. But that argument ignores the fact that everything normally improves over time. We don’t punish doctors today because of their past use of trepanning (the drilling of a hole in the patient’s skull) to allow evil spirits to escape. In America’s Industrial Revolution and through the 20th century, new production capabilities generated new problems that were previously unknown and often not understood or anticipated. Over time, private industry developed ways to solve those problems and reduce or eliminate harmful consequences for the environment.

In an economic system

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