COMMENTARY: Government interference impedes progress

Free enterprise is like basic life forms that flourish in the most difficult and unusual places.  Think of a blade of grass growing from a crack in a large rock.  The odds of germinating into life are formidable, but somehow the seed perseveres.

During the past seven years I have traveled to some very unique and different places-Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Iraq, Macedonia, and Mongolia.  None of these are considered hotbeds of economic dynamism.  The first six countries have been savaged by fighting at one time or another in the last ten years.  Mongolia emerged from Soviet domination after the fall of the Berlin Wall and has struggled to regain its Mongol identity.  But in each country I observed elements of free enterprise in action even though resources were typically scarce.  A lesson reinforced for me is that free enterprise is not so much about amounts as it is about ownership and will.

Ownership in these countries usually meant the physical possession of something, rather than monetary wealth.  And the "something" did not have to be much.  Strips of metal and cloth, old clothing items, and all kinds of things Americans throw away can be converted to something of value and offered for trade or sale.  All this happens "under the government's radar screen”-hard work and ingenuity is converted directly into benefit that is not taxed or otherwise diluted.  Governments in these countries are not yet sophisticated enough to tax "street corner" economic engines.  I believe this is what drives the second element I observed-will.

I observed plenty of poverty but not despair during my travels.  Certainly people in these countries live in conditions far below anything Americans can even imagine.  Yet, the sense of purpose and pride radiating from the free market activities in their squalid conditions jumps out.  Left to their own devices (no government interference) people in these countries are carving out lives for themselves and seeking betterment of their personal situations.

Is there a lesson for Nebraskans in all of this?  Yes, I believe there is.  As the nation settles into a period of tough economic times the one element least able to adjust is government.  While paychecks shrink in real value governments continue to demand more for "essential services."  The technique in common use today is to ask for more in small bites (this increase equates to a Big Mac a month, or that increase costs less than a Coke a day, etc.).  Seems harmless, how can one argue?

I submit that every time even a little more is taken from hard working citizens their sense of ownership of the American dream is diminished and their will to "go for it" comes into doubt.  Because the American economy is so robust even in difficult times small changes in attitude may not be perceptible.  But the effects of continued "nicks" at wealth will eventually lessen the will to prosper.

I have seen free enterprise in its rawest form in the poor countries I have visited.  I have seen people willfully struggle against great physical odds to sustain and improve their lives because they are left alone to succeed or fail.  I believe the opposite also applies-take more of the fruit of hard work and expect crop production to whither.  So the next time you hear the "Big Mac" reason for a new or higher tax being imposed remember this-one Big Mac is not the issue, it is thousands of wills being sapped.





Lieutenant General (NE, ret.) Roger Lempke is the Executive Director of the Platte Institute for Economic Research. Lempke served as state Adjutant General and he rapidly brought the Nebraska National Guard to wartime posture after 9/11 while also directing the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency through the most costly natural disasters in state history. The Platte Institute is a nonpartisan research and education organization whose mission is to advance alternatives that foster limited government, personal responsibility and free enterprise for Nebraska. Lempke can be reached at Roger.Lempke@PlatteInstitute.Org.