Focus on Consumer Needs; P.L. Poirot

Many Americans, however, had gained some practice and skill in "black marketing" during the years of Prohibition from 1920 32 through 1933. So, aside from the petty annoyances and inconven iences of price control and ration ing, the government's program for protecting consumers during World War II was not the national calam ity it might have been if rigid enforcement had prevailed. It didn't result in famine as similar "protections" have done in India, or cause the United States to lose the war as happened when Ant werp tried price control to pro tect its citizens under siege in 1585.1 By and large, the attempted intercession on behalf of consum ers during World War II simply did not succeed; American con sumers managed to protect them selves. GQvernments, however, are prone to repeat mistakes, for the resources squandered in such ven tures by government officials are rarely their own. Hence, as a tactical maneuver in the War on Poverty, the President has ap pointed a Committee on Consum er Interests which is charged with the responsibility, among other things, to "focus on consumer needs which can appropriately be met through Federal action, whether under existing laws or new legislation."

What all this means is that, if 1 See "How to Lose a War" by John Fiske, THE FREEMAN, December, 1964, page 17.

1965 "FOCUS ON CONSUMER NEEDS" 33 we're going to try to consume our way to prosperity, we'll need to use coercion. No individual can peacefully consume his way out of poverty; he might be able to steal his way out, but that would be both immoral and illegal. The poor individual's only peace ful recourse - aside from charit able offerings - is to try to work his way out of poverty, that is, produce or earn the additional goods and services he wants. And a helpful means to that end is voluntary exchange in the open market. An outstanding feature of the open market is the businessman, whose success or failure depends entirely upon his ability to "focus on consumer needs" and so com bine existing and potential factors of production to serve consumers most efficiently. The only construc tive role government can play un der the free market method of overcoming poverty is to see that the participation of individuals is strictly voluntary - that none is permitted to steal from or cheat or enslave another. In the free and open society, the organized force of government is to be used only if necessary to protect the lives and the property of peaceful individuals. In other words, the proper function of government is to protect against robbery rather than practice it.

By the Choice of the Individual, or Government Control? The alternatives are quite clear. The question is whether human energy is to be free for use ac cording to the choice of each in dividual; or, is the government to regulate and control the produc tive efforts of individuals and the fruits thereof? As each of us faces that partic ular decision, he should be well aware that competitive private enterprise by way of a free mar ket can never be expected to over come poverty in the absolute sense that all desires will be satisfied or that all will be equal in their possession and enjoyment of the necessities and comforts of life. Even if by some miracle it were possible to start everyone equally each morning, each with freedom to use his share as he pleased, by nightfall the material wealth of the world would again be distrib uted unevenly and the "lower third" would "go to bed hungry."

Freedom assures the individual of nothing but the unbridled op portunity to do the best he can with the abilities with which the Creator endowed him. This may seem to some persons to be inadequate - that the poorly endowed are entitled to more than they are capable of earning. Any one who feels that way surely should be free to exhaust his own 34 THE FREEMAN April resources in behalf of the poor. Beyond that, however, if such per sons then feel prepared to take upon themselves the role of the Creator - which must be the pre sumption of anyone advocating government direction of peaceful human affairs - they also should be well aware that never yet, in the long history of mankind, has there been a single case where such intervention has resulted in the alleviation of poverty. Joseph's and the Pharaoh's ever-normal granary in ancient Egypt lured a nation into bondage; the share and -share-alike-from-a-common storehouse plan of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock had to be aban doned lest everyone perish; and the agrarian reformers in modern Red China still face the same old consequences of massive coercion: mass starvation.

Not Necessarily So We may acknowledge that in the comparatively free market economies, even in the United States today, there is no equality of material possessions. Some per sons have a great deal more than the minimum requirements to sus tain life, while others face pov erty; and per haps there may be some few who actually go to bed hungry at night. But to observe that the free market has not to tally eliminated poverty does not justify the conclusion that pov erty, therefore, will automatically be overcome if the market is aban doned and the government placed in control of distribution. To observe that a man cannot walk very well with a broken leg does not necessarily mean that he will be able to walk better if we equalize matters by breaking his other leg, too! If a person has only the ability and the incentive to earn two square meals a day, it does not necessarily serve him right to relieve him of the incen tive - the necessity - to earn those two meals. If the government sub sidizes poverty, it does not neces sarily mean that poverty will thereby be diminished; on the con trary, it necessarily means that poverty will tend to be popularized as a way of life.

The free market rewards those who are most productive, those who serve consumers most effi ciently, whereas government inter vention on behalf of consumers rewards those who produce the least and operate most inefficient ly. These opposed methods of re ward have different eff'ects on the production process; the market method encourages prod uction, whereas the coercive government method takes away the incentive to produce. Which method will be most likely to allevia te poverty ought to be perfectly clear. ~ FREEDOM OF THE PRESS DEAN RUSSELL To THE BEST of my knowledge, freedom of the press (the printed word) is complete in the' United States today. That is, anyone can still write whatever he pleases and (subject to our reasonable' libel laws) the police will protect both him and his manuscript. But all too many of us confuse "free dom to write" with "what is printed." Both my liberal and con servative friends are equally guilty of this disservice to freedom. If they disagree with what is printed in the newspapers, they are often prone to complain that freedom of the press doesn't exist. That at titude demonstrates a total mis understanding of the meaning of freedom of the press.