Restoring Capitalism

Star Parker, one of the fine African-American conservative women on the political landscape, has recently written an article on the need to restore capitalism rather than continue to look to government. She is responding to the recent economic speeches made by President Obama. Here is the meat of what she had to say.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the current economic recovery "is one of the weakest on record, averaging 2 percent. Growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 was .4 percent. It rose to a still anemic 1.8 percent in the first quarter, but most economists are predicting even slower growth in the second quarter."
Yet, the president has no doubt that his policies are right. He ticks off the litany of big government programs that allegedly saved us from economic depression. And, with a slight nod that economic reality is not as rosy as he paints it, he concedes, "We're not there yet."
Perhaps it's again worth recalling the $831 billion stimulus package in 2009 that supposedly would keep unemployment below 8 percent. As unemployment galloped past 10 percent, never was there a hint of doubt from the president that his policies were right.
We're just "not there yet."
Now the president tells us we have to keep big, activist government going to save America's languishing middle class.
But the facts are that the middle class has fared poorly under big government.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, median household income -- $51,761 -- remains way below where it was before the recession started -- $56,289 - and where it was when it began -- $54, 218.
But, perhaps most notable in the president's remarks is what he did not say.
A magnificent economic miracle has occurred during this presidency. But the president did not find it worth mentioning because it has nothing to do with government.
Breakthroughs in technology have produced a boom in American energy production. American oil production is up 37 percent over the last two years, reversing 20 years of decline.
As of last March, the United States has become the largest oil producer in the world. Oil imports have dropped to 36 percent of our total oil consumption, down from 60 percent in 2006 and the lowest level since 1987.
No government planner could have ever dreamed of this type of miracle. It was not many years ago we were hearing about the world running out of oil.
According to Mr. Obama we are really dealing with different visions of how the world works. And he's right.

Her concern is that the President is hard-wired toward Big Government, and therefore to paint capitalism in a harsh and cold way. However, as the new American oil boom attests, it is freedom and capitalism that releases the human spirit, taps human creativity and produces prosperity that could never come from any government planner. To her way of thinking, few things are harsher than a stalled economy. What happens, of course, is that people in a stalled economic want to work and can't.