On The Run

We were recently asked to provide expert opinion, and if need be testimony, in a legal matter.  The details are not necessary to divulge, but it provided another stark example of how entrepreneurship, free market initiative, and outperforming another company have somehow become fodder for the courts, even when business decisions are made in an ethical manner.  It is amazing how making a profit, at someone else’s expense, has become the stuff for courts to adjudicate.

The issue probably would not be noteworthy if it weren’t part of a larger movement to have government, rather than the free market, decide what is best.  One of my colleagues at ITR argues that man is inherently corrupt and therefore perhaps government is needed to protect members of society from our baser instincts.  I wonder if it occurs to people that the government is comprised by folks with those same inherent weaknesses.  Who is to protect us from them?  In Austrian economics, the answer is the consumer adjudicates through the marketplace. 

Please don’t confuse this issue with any partisan politics because is not a matter of political party; it is a matter of choosing which path to take.  The one that heads back toward a free market and has been proven to work (albeit imperfectly), or the path which has been taken by others toward increasing government control, which has been shown to be the path toward mediocrity at best, and an inability to improve the standard of living for the majority of the people who live at the end of that path.

Our Management Objectives™ at ITR are for those who are still able to make the decisions and take the steps necessary to ensure a prosperous future.  The business cycle is heading upward.  It is time to rely on your own abilities and wisdom with the understanding that the marketplace will judge whether you were right or wrong.