“Laissez faire, laissez passer”               

Fancois Quesnay

During the last five years we have witnessed the demise of dozens of economic systems which fell victim to the excesses of restrictive and costly regulations and social programs imposed by their governments.  These managed economies were been driven to the brink by destructive policies enacted by politicians with little, if any, real knowledge of either business or markets. 

Tragically, while many western democracies retreat from overly managed and socialized economic systems, a Congressional cartel of Republicans and Democrats continues to enact an increasing body of intrusive and burdensome tax and regulatory legislation designed to control the activities of American markets and businesses.  Together with legions of DC-based attorneys and federal bureaucrats who draft such legislation, they are apparently convinced the people they are elected to serve are simply too stupid and/or too greedy to make intelligent economic decisions. 

The ideas for these regulations are typically hatched by small cadres of avant-garde, typically leftist, management and academic gurus … most of whom have never run a business, never met a payroll, and never had to personally guaranteed a business loan. 

An example of one such flighty proposal now being bandied around several liberal Washington think tanks was recently imported from France, where it has been seriously discussed in the French Assembly.  Devised by a management consultant, this proposition would shorten the work week as a vehicle to reduce his nation’s chronic unemployment rate which hovers around 12%. 

On the surface, it sounds like a simple answer to a complex problem … the kind of solution adored by a shallow, headline-oriented media.  If the work week is shortened from forty to thirty-two hours, business will have to hire more people to meet even current production or servicing demands.  This proposal even came with its own sound-bite, “Work less and everybody works”.

Of course, logic would then dictate the pay for the existing work force be reduced by an equivalent amount (80%) … Right? 

Wrong! 

Under this proposal, worker paychecks would be reduced by only 5%, or perhaps not at all if some powerful French unions now supporting this initiative have their way.  The rationale of the young Frenchman who conjured up this scheme presumes today’s workers are unhappy and insecure in their jobs because of high unemployment, and thus inefficient.  But, under his reduced work week plan, there would be many more people working, less unemployment resulting in happier workers with greater job security … and thus more efficient. 

Therefore, he concludes, business profits would not be severely impacted and individual wages would remain relatively unchanged.  The significant ancillary costs of hiring new workers are conveniently ignored in his arguments.

The good news is, a coalition of free market proponents and less radical socialists in the French legislature have defeated further consideration of this moronic legislation for this year. 

The bad news, similar proposals are likely to be reconsidered in the near future.  Even more frightening, however, highly respected administration advisors in several western European nations and in the United States are giving this and other equally frivolous proposals serious consideration.

Americans must begin look beyond the superficial promises of the politicians who have overseen such economic miracles a national debt now surging past the $4.4 trillion level and currently consuming some $250 billion in annual interest expenses.  They must question the myth that only a bigger, more intrusive government can solve the problems and inequities of a free market system. 

Unfortunately, history suggests beltway solutions ultimately do little more than abridge individual freedoms, disincentivize business expansion, redistribute wealth, cost billions more than advertised and are devoid of any long term accountability.

Free markets are not perfect … neither is democracy.  Both have their inherent weaknesses.  Yet, they provide more individual opportunity, more jobs a higher level of technological innovation and greater personal wealth than any other system ever devised. 

With the specter of a nationalized health care system looming on next year’s Congressional calendar, the public must demand its proponents provide absolute long-term delivery, quality and cost-containment guarantees … not simply “feel good” promises.