Monday, August 9, 2010

Arthur Lieber in the Beacon

Arthur Lieber, running for House of Representatives against Todd Akin in MO-02, wrote a column for the Beacon about the government's role in job creation:
To succeed, small businesses need fertile ground in which to grow as well as protection against predators and unfair competition. Whether we like it or not, government plays the role of “traffic cop” in our economy; ensuring for everyone, including small businesses, that we are headed in the right direction and avoiding calamitous outcomes.

It is fashionable to say that the biggest problem that small businesses face is government interference. But what is one person’s interference is another person’s protection. An analogy would be the back judge in a football game who with a simple handkerchief protects the wide receiver from undue interference by the defensive back. Without referees, we would have mayhem; without the government, capitalism would be Darwinian and there would be only a few strong survivors. The interests of the small entrepreneur and the consumer would be left unprotected.
Read the whole thing here.

1 comment:

  1. Arthur on July 15 approximately six middle aged men met with Congressman Carnahan's staff regarding net neutrality. We were with out exception small business people.

    We went to some pains to describe the history of the internet, how it was developed by DARPA and then protocols were developed and the internet was opened to commerce by the Clinton administration. Thus it is a classic public market place not private property.We43 explained that the internet as it is today is the closest thing to Adam Smith's ideal that has ever existed.

    We went further reminding the Congressman that most jobs are created by small business. That today every small business is dependent on it's website and that loss of net neutrality could result in a few monopolies dominating the market.

    They listened politely, took notes and promised to bring all of these things to the Congressman's attention.

    I recently received a letter and Congressman Carnahan has not changed his mind he wants the government to stay out of net neutrality which means he is opposed to net neutrality. In short Carnahan is standing with big business against the American people.

    In the Congressman's defense I have no idea if his gate keepers have communicated our concerns.

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