Awake or Asleep; E. McMunn

Earl W. McMunn AWAKE or ASLEEP? OVER-REGULATION by government is crippling our agricultural system. But is doesn't stop there. Govern ment meddling is a major threat to our entire productive economy. And a lot of people who should know better are asleep to the danger. Land use, pesticides, air and water quality, energy, taxation and destruction of profit incentives: these are issues which will deter mine the destiny of agriculture and living standards for more than 200 million Americans. The question is whether govern ment promotes progress by robbing individuals of their right to choose. This right of free choice is being taken away by those who believe in an all-powerful government. They Mr. McMunn was for many years editor of The Ohio Farmer and is now director of public relations for Robinson Hybrids, Inc., of Delaware, Ohio. This article Is reprinted from The Ohio Farmer, December 1977. Copyright, The Harvest Publishing Company.

184 do this in the name of ((promoting the public welfare." And yet, history shows that individuals have always done best at solving social and economic problems when they have been free of government tyranny. Think what has been ac complished to improve the lot of mankind just since the turn of this century! Our average life span has been increased more than 30 years. Sound of the human voice can be flashed to any point on earth in a fraction of a second. A person can cross our continent in less than four hours. Almost everyone can own a ((horseless carriage." Many dread diseases have been conquered. We produce enough food for every one-and more. These are only a few of the won ders of our age. They were not prod ucts of government planning or in tervention. Instead, they resulted from uninhibited, creative thinking by free individuals.

AWAKE OR ASLEEP? 185 So freedom to think, to plan, to choose, to dare, to win and to lose is the key to human progress. And this freedom to choose is the prize we are losing. It is a basic human right we may still support with lip service. But the truth is, we are letting it die of neglect. Some freedom of choice is lost every time a new item is added to the agenda of ~~free government service." Wrong Signals It isn't just what government spends for us-even though this is bad enough. The real danger is in getting signals from the wrong source. And in accepting their mis leading messages as gospel truth. Producers who get their signals from the marketplace can usually rely upon the information they re ceive. Strong demand is a signal to supply more of the product. Weak demand is a sign to cut back. It is different when government meddles. Signals between producers and consumers are garbled or delib erately distorted. Political consider ations interfere with economic facts of life. The concern becomes: ~~What will Congress or the President de cide?" Not: ~~What do the customers want?"

Substituting misleading political signals for information from the marketplace isn't new. It has been growing during recent years. But its basic weakness has been brought into clearer focus by events of recent months. Even liberal politicians ap preciate the need for a sound private economy. Tax money is more plenti ful and easier to collect when people are working at productive jobs. Politicians like to have fat chickens to pick. But when business decisions are based upon political considerations, (~confidence" becomes the watch word. ~~Can we believe what the President says?" Or ~~Can we trust lawmakers who mouth hatred for ~business ripoffs' while pushing for an ever-larger tax bite?" These are questions which influence the way the economy will perform. And they are far removed from that basic issue of what consumers want and how producers will be motivated to respond. Our economy is performing in an erratic fashion and political meddling is a major reason. The economy grew at a rate of only 3.8 per cent during the third quarter of this year. The stock market was almost 20 per cent lower than it was the first of the year. And the dollar has been losing ground to almost every major currency in the world with the exception of the Canadian dollar.

As a candidate, President Carter said he would provide stable and predictable government policy. This is what business needs, but so far it 186 THE FREEMAN March has failed to materialize. In fact, business leaders everywhere point to political meddling as a major rea son for the sluggish economy. This is critical, because business decisions on investment and produc tion will determine the level of economic activity. And the Adminis tration counts on economic growth to balance the budget, reduce unem ployment and pay for a long and costly list of social programs. Political-Overkill The underlying fact is that politi cians are trying too hard to run the economy. This applies alike to the President and to a majority of the lawmakers. Politicians who ,promise to cure every ill are likely to -kill more patients than they cure. And political aims -are often con flicting or mutually self-defeating.

One ofthe President's promises was a balanced budget.' He also said he would reduce inflation, cut unem ployment, raise the minimum wage, strengthen the power of labor unions, provide a nationwide system of public health care and expand a number of other social programs. Push one of these - aims and you undermine something else. The truth is we have cultivated unreal hopes about what govern ment can do for us and have not taught people to count the cost. We are looking to government as the source of our prosperity when we should be understanding that wealth is created by a productive private economy. Charles B. Shuman, former presi dent of the American Farm Bureau Federation, sums it up as well as anyone when he says: ~~The greatest threat to the future of our nation to our freedom-is not foreign. mili tary aggression or internal com munistic subversion but the grow ing dependence of the people on a paternalistic government. A nation is no stronger than its people and the best measure of their strength is how well they accept responsibility.

There will never be a great society unless the materialism of the wel fare state is replaced-by individual initiative and responsibility." Yes, too much political meddling is picking our productive economy to pieces. And we of the agribusiness community can interpret some of the damage in terms of meaning to all the people. Ban pesticides-and you lower food quality. Interfere with fertilizer supplies-and pro duction suffers. Destroy profit incen tives-and our food abundance fades away. Take away individual free dom-and we lose the driving force which made us the most favored people on the face of the earth. Bureaucrats expand their power by promising more than they can deliver. They will continue to be oppressive and heavy-handed. But their failures explain the growing 1978 AWAKE OR ASLEEP? 187 disenchantment with government which shows up in one public opin ion poll after another. Large num bers of people are already complain ing about the stupidity and unfair ness of government. These numbers will continue to grow. And the thirst for individual freedom is an in grained force in human nature which cannot be permanently de stroyed. This is the real hope for the future.

Hope versus Fear We have a great story to tell. Are we awake to the opportunity? This is the question. All of us have others we can influence. Decision-makers respond to aroused public opinion. And we will start to move away from the stifling hand of government in tervention when enough people get fed up with the havoc it is creating. Don't lose heart. The time of that awakening may come sooner than you expect! @ IDEAS ON UBERTY THERE is no escaping the fact that human effort is motivated by hope of reward on the one hand, and by fear of punishment on the other. The ideal combination is rewards that are great and reasonably attainable and punishments that are not too severe. America's economic progress is the result of conditions which have provided maximum opportunities for reward, but which have limited the penalties to personal insecurity and business bankruptcy. At the other extreme is the totalitarian state, which promises security at the expense of freedom and which attempts to ttencourage" initiative by the threat of the concentration camp or firing squad.

Under free competition based on personal responsibility and volun tary cooperation, our production of useful goods and services has exceeded anything ever before acomplished. True, we are far from perfect, and in some respects we seem to have been drifting backwards. The big point is that our progress to date is the result of an entirely new and different form of political structure which made it possible for human energy and individual initiative to work under their own natural control. Henry Grady Weaver, The Mainspring of Human Progress A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN Enemies of Society THE HISTORY of the ancient world, says Paul Johnson in his masterly and provocative Enemies of Society (Atheneum Publishers, 122 E. 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10017, 278 pages, $9.95) is to a large extent a history of lost opportunities. The Greek and Roman civilizations trembled on the verge of significant take-offs, but, even as every other previous civilization since the origi nal ((Neolithic breakthrough," they lost momentum and fell back. Does it have to be that way always? Mr.