Here's a question; what would the world be like (and our country in particular) if there were virtually no rules on how the free economy operates?  Now to be clear, when I say no rules, I mean no government imposed rules.  Civil judgments in court would still be there, alive and well, as would criminal laws against fraud and theft.  No one is trying to say it is okay to steal or hurt anyone, just that we don't need government laws and regulations apart from what a court can do.  So, what would it be like?

Well, for starters taxes would go way, way down and the national debt could be controlled because absent all of those rules and regulations, the reason for most government agencies ceases to exist and we could just shut them down.  Goodbye to the Departments for Commerce, Education, Energy, HHS, HUD, Transportation, and if fact everything except Defense, State, and the Attorney General.  Everything else would devolve to the state level and most states would likely not duplicate them, given the track record of federal failure.  So, our finances would be in order.

Next business would boom!  Absent all the rules and regulations the billions of dollars wasted on compliance, would instead be devoted to growth and employees.  Think of how companies around the world would line up to do business here!

And the biggest rules and regulations are the tax code, thousands of pages of confusion that we could just plain rescind.  It is a fact that companies pay as much to comply as they actually end up paying in taxes!  Think of what that would do both to the bottom line and to America's ability to compete!  What would take its place?  A national sales tax of about 15% (give or take) should do it.  Doesn't that tax the poor you might ask?  Yes, and if they receive benefits they should pay like everyone else.  And won't prices go up?  Nope!  Companies will save more in compliance costs with the IRS than the tax would be.  The compliance costs of the current tax code is estimated at about 20%, so prices would drop more than the new tax!  And again, think of the companies around the world that would line up to relocate here in the land of no income taxes and no regulations!

What would control companies from doing stupid things?  Failure!  It's the best possible regulation as it destroys bad companies.  Oh, as PT Barnum said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time!” Sooner or later, making bad products, defrauding customers, and doing business badly will put a company out of business as it should.  And don't forget, I never said that there should not be civil lawsuits and criminal codes.  Real bad guys will go to jail, plain and simple.

Instead of enacting stupid rules that require more stupid rules to fix the stupid problems created by the stupid regulations in the first place, the free market would reward the good and punish the bad - quickly and cleanly - and with no cost to consumers.

And what about those greedy businesspeople who get rich out there?  Good!  There is opportunity for everyone in a free market.  Hard, smart effort will be rewarded and laziness will be punished.  I have a feeling, heck, a certainty that when faced with the certain knowledge that the safety net is gone most folks will buckle right down and get busy and successful.

What about those who through no fault of their own can't get ahead? That is why there are private charities!  First of all, there are not that many of these folks and with no income tax, a lot of money will be free in this, the most generous country in history, to find private ways to take care of the truly needy.  A free market means MORE charity, because the government takes so much less.  And who do you think does a better job at delivering aid, a private charity where employees can be fired for not doing their jobs well or some government program, where there is often no way to remove a bureaucrat?

A free market is not perfect and it is not without pain.  The enemy of good is perfect.  But, a free market delivers the most benefit for the most people with the least cost.  Most of all, it preserves individual freedoms.  We need a lot less government and a lot more free enterprise. That is the path out of this mess.