What's Your Problem? B. Summers

We don't figure out how to run the social security system or the postal service. We proponents of freedom can, of course, offer numerous examples of how the market has solved people's problems. But we've no reason to say: "Look, this private institution is better than that government institution. There fore, private solutions are better." Rather, we say: "Let's compare systems. Yours is based on coercive taxation, monopoly privilege, and forced participation. Ours is based on the freedom to use our own re sources to try to solve people's prob lems. In our system we don't claim to have the solution for this or that problem, because we know that in a competitive market, trial and error will soon bring forth better solu tions. We let each consumer decide for himself which solution is best for his needs. We don't impose our val ues on anyone." Trial and error. Competition. Freedom of choice. This is the es sence of the free market system. It won't solve all our problems, but it wins hands down over "solutions"

imposed by those with political power. Mr. Summers is a member of the staff of The Founda tion for Economic Education. 681 Roger Ream --------•••••••••••••••--------Price Ceilings Harm the Poor CASUAL OBSERVATIONof events can lead to faulty conclusions. Outward appearances can be quite mislead ing for things are not always as they seem. Failure to look beyond the ob vious has led to many blunders on the part of both scientists and casual observers. For instance, over the centuries it was obvious that we lived in a geo centric universe. Even the casual observer could watch the sun rise in the east, travel across the sky, and set in the west. However, Coperni cus' among others, discovered that what appeared obvious was mis leading. The solar system was in reality heliocentric, but the rotation of the earth on its axis made it ap pear that the sun revolved around the earth, rather than vice versa.