HOW A FATALLY-FLAWED NO-BRAINER OF AN "ISSUE" COULD PROVE IMPORTANT IN INDECISION 2008: A recent editorial by Dave Zweifel in The Capital Times (Madison, WI) as is worth sharing:

We're learning once again why government needs to protect capitalism from itself.

Back in the 1930s Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the rescue of the so-called "free market" with a series of new programs and regulations to restore trust in the nation's financial and corporate institutions, whose excesses had thrown the country into the Great Depression and ruined the financial well-being of millions of Americans.

Roosevelt and many of the reformers of his day recognized that the interests of business don't exist in a vacuum, that the fortunes or misfortunes of businesses can have a profound impact on even the most innocent of citizens.

Laissez faire advocates like the late Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman protested, saying that nothing should "interfere" with the "free market" and that unfettered competition would right the marketplace. History has proven them wrong.

Time and time again, corporate America has shown that greed, unless checked by government oversight, will unjustly ensnare the unwary.

We saw it with the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s, we witnessed it with the Enrons and Worldcoms of just a few years ago, and we're seeing it again with the subprime mortgage meltdown.

It would be one thing if the recklessness affected only the companies themselves. But that's far from the case.

Even responsible mortgage holders who have never missed a payment on their loans suddenly find themselves with mortgages that exceed the values of their property because the subprime fallout keeps growing like a cancer.

Now comes the news that countless local governments that depend on the property tax to fund everything from police and fire protection to the public schools are facing devastating shortfalls in revenues because assessment values are plummeting--it's either that or raise tax rates.

In other words, the irresponsibility of the financial marketers is likely to cause significant cutbacks in the quality of public service clear down to the number of teachers for our children.

That shouldn't be allowed to happen and it's why the public--through its governmental institutions--needs to be protected with meaningful oversight and regulation.

History has shown us that greed quickly raises its ugly head when the capitalist community is allowed to use its own devices.

The public--and the well-being of the country--needs to be constantly protected. The lessons are quite clear.

Which, no doubt, the Zealots and True Believers of free-market capitalism with American characteristics being one with the soverignty and soverign identity of the United States, and the defence thereof, will quickly dispute as being nothing short of "subtly-disguised Communism," and suggesting, as per usual, that market-based self-regulation based on industry-specific Codes of Good Practice will "save America from herself" and "lead to a New Golden Age of Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life" as the Lower Classes especially would "wholeheartedly" accept.

Otherwise known as "producerism," the which is explained for you in this online slide show.

=============

Soooo, @ the expense of being seen by the Zealots and True Believers, and their fellow-travellers, as nothing more than "creating non-issues out of whole cloth***that nobody is really interested in" in an election year," perhaps it was time to start asking this element a few questions which may be loaded--for a purpose--but which have to be asked nonetheless:

• Can you show any examples from the "developed" world of countries where official policy expects free-market socioeconomic models to predominate? Are they expected to follow self-regulatory models, for the most part?
• Are such self-regulatory models actually translating into lower consumer prices, greater consumer choice, and creation of real jobs and payrolls (even considering Value-Added Tax in some countries)?
• As far as the United States is concered, can you name any examples of industry-specific Codes of Good Practice which the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has "safe harboured" (i.e., determined to be more than adequate regulatory oversight without further Government intervention)?
• In such industries as are covered under these self-regulatory codes, is there actually realistic competition being encouraged, translating into reasonable consumer prices and jobs creation--or are there coded "traps" which secretly encourage cartel behaviour and its excesses?
• How do we know such Self-Regulatory Codes as you would love to see in place will actually encourage healthy competition, wider consumer choices and options, and create jobs, let alone "encourage morality"?
• How do we know self-regulatory codes will actually compel manufacturers and retailers to, "out of the collective goodness of their hearts," lower prices and increase consumer selection overnight, as if magically?
• How do we know you're not secretly asking for reinstatement of "Fair Trading" laws as prevailed until the mid-1960's in the name of "protecting the free market" by way of a "level playing field" excusing such excesses of cartel behaviour as:
  • price-fixing?
  • Reseller Price Maintenance Agreements?
  • "tied-house" agreements prohibiting sale of identical products manufactured by competitors?
  • restricting or otherwise prohibiting brand advertising?
  • controlling manufacture and distribution?
  • deceptive marketing practices such as repackaging essentially the same product under different "brand names," each with supposedly distinct and pecuilar characteristics?
• Would your ideal of self-regulatory models place too burdensome an onus upon consumers encountering defective merchandise or other problems to the point of their bringing complaint?
• How sure can we be that self-regulatory business models will actually improve the quality of life for especially the Lower Classes "heretofore enslaved to State welfare and its subtle tendencies towards Socialism"?
• How would self-regulatory business models actually encourage "a wholesome and simple home life"?
• What sort of checks and balances would you actually have in place as part of these self-regulatory codes to ensure the confidence and trust of manufacturers, retailers and end consumers?
• Are you now, or have you ever been, an alcoholic, drug addict, sex fiend or pervert, chronic and habitual gambler or spendthrift, sufferer from loathsome mental or social diseases, and/or served time in prisons or psychiatric hospitals?
• Have you no sense of Decency, Sir, @ long last?
• Have you left no sense of Decency?

You know where to leave the answers.