by Julie R Butler

Created on: January 09, 2009

Republican's "no regulation" ideology is dead - dead, dead, dead. As someone knowledgeable recently put it, trying to have an economy that has no rules is like playing a game of pick-up basketball with no referees: things are bound to get out of hand. The idea that economic forces will somehow magically regulate themselves is akin to believing in unicorns and fairy dust. Laissez-faire ideology is a myth, based on a fantasy, built upon a misunderstanding, all of which have been proven ever so wrong by the financial events of the recent past. And anyone who tries to claim that this is not all an apparition is delusional and not willing to look critically at their own belief system.

The idea that less regulation is better is actually a cover for allowing business owners to cheat, lie and steal their way to fortune. The less regulation there is, the more that cheating, lying, and stealing will occur. "But no," you say, "why would the business owners do that? They want to make money the legitimate way." Why they would do that is because nothing is stopping them, when there are no regulations. There are no laws to break, and no accountability to speak to, so why not cheat lie, and steal? "Well," your answer might be, "the government should not make rules and regulations, because the free market regulates itself." How does that occur, I would like to know? "You see," this is you again, "the invisible hand of the market place always sets things straight. Lying, cheating, and stealing is bad business. A business like that will lose its customers, through its bad reputation, and so it is in its interest to stay on the up and up, to develop a sound reputation, and to built its clientle through honest business practices."

But there you go with your fairy dust, again. For that is precisely how crooks set up their scams. They pose as legitimate business people, gain everyone's trust, and then, when enough people have invested in their scheme or lent them enough money based on their sterling reputation, they run off with all the dough. Or, they can trim personal profits off of the books all along, having convinced everyone to trust them, so that no one looks into their financial dealings. Everything seems to be hunky dory, that is, up until someone wants the money that they had put in back, and it is discovered that the money has evaporated. Or, the product that is being sold is inferior or defective in a way that does not become apparent for some time, such as when someone

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