Chart of the Day: An Economic Lesson From a Zen Master
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- Written by Adam English, Associate Editor, Inside Investing Daily
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After helping my brother build a fence for his new house, I was taught a lesson in the power of free market economies by my nephew. He is 3 years old...
We finished a block fort of unrivaled glory right before dinner. When we returned it was obvious that a beagle had plowed through it and left it in ruins.
I began to rebuild but he would have none of it. Howling and stealing blocks out of my hand, he started on a new project. There were plenty of blocks left that we could use to shore up and salvage our old fort, but my reasoning fell on deaf ears.
Why? He had two answers: "The fort is old" and "It's broken."
I sat there pondering his rationale as the young zen master quietly and quickly got to work now that I was done interfering with his progress.
I was acting like an out-of-touch politician who was trying to rebuild an old, broken 20th-century American economy by tossing more money on it. My nephew was the free market building a better economy after the old one was ripped apart by real-world forces... like beagles.
Our government has tried to prop up job creation in specific industries but hasn't improved anything. We are still far below the job growth needed just to keep up with population growth.
Job creation grants are ineffective and expensive. Quantitative easing has padded the bottom line of giant banks and the only way it will affect everyday citizens is through inevitable inflation.
My nephew didn't need more blocks to shore up a failed design and neither do we. He used what was left after a disaster to make something better.
Only the free market can create jobs in a capitalist economy. A fundamental shift is underway and a new paradigm will exist without our government's help.
Let's hope politicians -- and uncles -- can learn to back off and let the free market do what it does best. If we learn to leave it alone, it will build a strong economy that is not dependent on government intervention and can stand up to the next disaster... or rampaging beagle.