Toyota's Problem Is NOT For The Government To Solve - It Properly Belongs In the Free Market Arena

The fact that our government is intervening now in every aspect of our daily lives should be a major cause for concern for every American who is dedicated to individual freedom and rights. An excellent article at WashingtonExaminer.com explains how the government intervenes in affairs it has no business in interfering with - private enterprise. Posturing and meddling by politicians and pressure groups is not the American way and results in only group warfare and a degradation of everyone's freedom. We must get the government out of our private enterprise system - let the Market determine consequences and rewards NOT government.

...But pressure groups are only a symptom. The cause is the government’s power to intervene in the market to pick winners and losers. In the auto industry alone, the government controls everything from whom car companies can hire (unionized employees) to what kind of vehicles they must build (hybrids).

And elsewhere it decides which businesses are “too big to fail,” which industries “deserve” massive subsidies, and which unproven technologies warrant billions of taxpayer “investment.” That’s a recipe for pressure group warfare.

This is not what Madison and Jefferson had in mind. Their vision was of a strictly limited government, which would perform one basic function, guard individual rights. Its role was to protect the individual’s rights to life, liberty, and property from infringement by thugs and frauds, while otherwise leaving people free to produce and trade in a free market.

In the original American system, it’s the job of the market to pick winners and losers, and the job of the courts, not Congress, to arbitrate disputes, such as that between Toyota and drivers harmed in accidents.

The truth is Toyota’s troubles should not be a political issue. On a free market, Toyota would have to address the real or alleged problems with its cars and work to restore its reputation with consumers, or suffer the consequences.

And if the company were proved in a court of law to be guilty of negligence, it would be held accountable. In any case, there would be no need for the circus now taking place, with all its sordid political posturing and favor-trading.

So here’s a proposal. Make Washington come up with a plan to disentangle government from the economy. It might even start with a congressional investigation. (Read the article by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins - What's Really Driving the Toyota Controversy?)