We Will Have To Work For It, However

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true.  You may have to work for it, however."

Richard David Bach
From the book, The Bridge Across Forever:  A True Love Story

Most well known for his book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I have always been intrigued by the Richard Bach quote above.  So much so I have it hanging in my office.  It is a photo, brilliantly yellow and orange, of a man flying with a hang glider toward the sunset.  A modern Icarus.

While it sounds like something Jonathan would say, he did not. 

But Jonathan was also about soaring, personal growth and development, achieving a higher level and forever bettering himself.  And these processes never end as one can never "arrive."

These concepts all indicate the basics of capitalism and free enterprise. 

When allowed such freedom, an unfettered dreamer will always find a way to fit into the market that most allows his individualism and abilities to soar.  The Invisible Hand will take over, and this individual, or individuals together, will step up and take their place in the vast heirarchy of the marketplace.

This marketplace is inifinite.  It never arrives.  It is never finished.  It has the ability to always expand, to always innovate, to always find product differentiation, to always create substitutes, and to always reduce costs and therefore price.

AND THIS IS TRUE FOR GOODS OR SERVICES!

When policies and regulations force innovators and producers to have to find ways around this or that to make something happen, the policies and regulations are not helpful.  A way will always be found!

And the wrong headed will create further policy and regulation to try to prevent that from continuing, forcing another creative way around that!

Wouldn't it be better for all society, and lift all boats, if the tide of creativity was instead put into thinking, development, production and distribution of whatever the good or service that will make lifestyles easier, cheaper, more interesting and time saving?

Economics is not driven by demand.  It is driven by supply.  Economics is supply side!

Why can I so confidently say that?  Because the demand for a good or service has no economic attraction until it hits the market!

Is there a demand for unending and cheap energy, say cold fusion?  Such that, like the car in the movie, we could find some garbage like a banana peel and throw it into the "gas" tank and be able to float to another place really quickly?

OF COURSE THE DEMAND IS THERE!

Is there any economics in that regard?  None.  That energy source does not exist.  There is no supply.

No supply, no economics.

Can we get there? 

Not if we are spending our time with gubment taking sides and forcing money into this politically-correct product or that one! 

If those products earned market-driven profits they would be more than self sustaining!  They would be in demand!  And money would flow from the marketplace, and greater supply would be encouraged.

Profit is merely the market responding to the supply of a good or service it wants or enjoys!

And so, if we want a cheap, unending energy source, or astounding medical breakthrough, or an education system that creates graduates who critically think for themselves, or whatever the amazing good or service that will change the world - how do we get it?

With policies that encourage the thinking, development, production and distribution of those kinds of things!  

We must encourage free enterprise!

We really are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true.  But, and there is always a but,

we will have to work for it, however.