I wanted to list the reasons why I believe people who believe in a conservative ideology should not support Romney in the coming election.
- Romney supports the bailouts of wall street in 2008. Romney believe that bailing out large financial corporations that took huge risks and made fortunes for themselves should be given taxpayer money when those risks blew up. A conservative believes in the free market, and one of the most important aspects of a free market is that companies that fail must be liquidated. The liquidation process transfers assets from the incompetent to the competent. It punishes those that make poor use of resources. Bailouts create moral hazard where corporations take on more risk than they would otherwise and leads to an overall more unstable equilibrium.
- Romney supports the Federal Reserve. Conservatives should believe in the free market and the free market says that the market should determine prices, not the government. When the government sets prices, the result is either a surplus or a shortage. The most important price in the economy is the interest rate. The FED directly sets the short term interest rate through the Federal Funds Rate, and it can strongly influence the long term interest rate through purchasing treasury bonds. Lowering the interest rate and printing money to buy bonds has two negative consequences. First, it causes higher prices which hurt the poor the most. Second, it causes the business cycle. All of the newly printed money flows into the economy and distorts the structure of production, which will eventually need to be corrected in a future recession.
- Romney is against free trade and calls for tariffs against China. Romney says that China's currency manipulation is what allows them to produce cheaper products and drives American companies out of business. I think this is an example where a businessman does not necessarily make a good economist. Free trade is mutually beneficial and the benefits cheaper prices brings to the American economy far outweigh the jobs lost. People will be able to save a great deal of money and they can use this money to buy more goods, which can be supplied by Americans. The reason our companies are having trouble competing is because of over-regulation and high taxes. American companies pay the highest corporate taxes in the developed world.
- Romney supports the Patriot Act with all of its abuses on our rights. Conservatives should believe in the Constitution and all rights that it guarantees. The Patriot Act abuses rights protected in the Constitution and should be opposed by conservatives.
- Romney passed legislation while Governor of Massachusetts that was very similar to Obamacare. Romney's version also included penalties on people that were unable to pay - making a miserable situation faced by the poor even worse.
- Romney is essentially a Keynesian and believes in government spending to stimulate an economy. Romney supports government stimulus during a recession.
- Romney increased gas taxes and fees while governor.
- Romney believe in government subsidies for certain industries like alternative energy rather than allowing the free market to decide winners and losers.
- Romney supports the aggressive foreign policy started under George W. Bush and continued during the Obama years. Not only does our foreign policy waste both domestic and foreign lives, it gets the United States entangled in conflicts that are unrelated to us such as Iraq and Lybia. Romney supports a foreign policy that is bankrupting the country.
- Romney supports continue use of the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, he said that it should be expanded, which is against the right to a fair trial. If you believe that the people at Guantanamo Bay are war prisoners, then we should have a declaration of war first, and this was never made.
Both political parties are in agreement on the overwhelming majority of issues. Both support the expansion of the welfare/warfare state at the expense of our personal and economic liberties. Bush started unwinnable wars, and Obama continued them and started his own. Bush expends Medicare and Obama passes Obamacare. The political parties are used to divide the population into liberals and conservatives in order to confuse the real struggle which is between government and the people. Instead of the people fighting against an overreaching government, we have the people fighting against each other in order to get "their" people into power. But they don't realize that "their" politicians are actually the government's, and work to expand the government's power at the expense of the individuals.
We who believe in freedom need to stop attacking just liberals and just conservatives, and attack all forms of coercion, not matter who initiates it.
No comments:
Post a Comment