Economic Policy – Insufficient
by Believing that our economy’s success is dependent on a political policy, rather than a more firmly entrenched set of core values, is a dangerous attitude to embrace. Just as with crime, Americans are willing to accept the false idea that the solution to our economic problem lies in making the right political decisions.
Let’s imagine for a moment that President Obama and Congress came up with a perfect set of policies to be implemented in response to our economic crisis. Would that by itself solve America’s economic problems? If such policy perfection were possible, and that’s a big if, believing that our economy’s success is dependent on a political policy, rather than a more firmly entrenched set of core values, is a dangerous attitude to embrace. No, the answer to our economic problem does not lie solely in having the right policy.
Policy dictates the climate, but culture dictates the quality of the soil. We can have the best business climate in the world with just enough rain and sunlight, but if you have nothing but sand to grow your crops, you’re done. America’s past success was predicated on a combination of the ideal economic policy, based on capitalist principles, and the ideal culture, based on democratic principles. It wasn’t that America was blessed with such a significant advantage in the number of talented people it possessed, but rather that it had the best environment and culture to promote and realize that talent. You can have all the oil in the world, but if you can’t tap it it’s worthless.
In The Economist, an article about entrepreneurs made the point. “…if we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference. You can build as many incubators as you like, but if only 3% of the population want to be entrepreneurs, as in Finland, you will have trouble creating an entrepreneurial society.”
America’s high-school dropout rate has been around fifty percent in most major cities for over two decades. Does this lack of value placed on education bode well for the future of a capitalist society? The future has arrived and things aren’t looking good. In closing his inaugural address, President Obama said, “Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”
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