"Beginning in the late 1970s, numerous industries in the United States were deregulated, with remarkable results."
"Americans should travel abroad more," recommends Lawrence Lindsey of the American Enterprise Institute. "If we did, we would be a lot prouder of what we have accomplished. At the present time," Lindsey boasts, "the United States is almost the only country that can point with pride to its economic performance. We have thirty-year lows in both inflation and unemployment. We have a sustained economic expansion that has entered its seventh year."
Lindsey attributes these record achievements to "some beneficial actions taken by government," specifically "the series of steps over the past fifteen to twenty years to deregulate our economy and let markets work." Prior to deregulation, protected industries "had considerable discretion in setting prices," he observes. "The opening of these industries terminated that pricing power -- including pricing power in labor markets -- and that is the secret behind the American success story."
Lindsey rehearses the chronicle of deregulation: "We started in our transportation industries -- airlines, trucking, intercity bus, and rail. We ended oil price controls, and we deregulated natural gas. We removed or lowered our tariffs and ended so-called voluntary export restraints by other countries in such areas as steel, textiles, and autos. Later, we moved on to other industries. Telecommunications has been deregulated. The financial services industry has been deregulated. Banking has been largely deregulated, although more work remains."
As industries face increased competition, so too do their employees. Deregulation has been accompanied by de-unionization and shortened terms of employment. "Today, only about one worker in ten in the private sector belongs to a union," Lindsey reports. "America now has nearly as many public-sector union members as private-sector union members. Furthermore," he continues, "those of us in white-collar jobs have had our own form of de-unionization. The comfortable lifetime employment relationships that used to exist for many private-sector bureaucrats are gone."
While American consumers applaud the manifest benefits of increased competition, downsized workers demur. Their reservations are certainly understandable. No one likes being let go. No one likes having to start over. But no employer should be expected to keep on workers when he has no work for them. If he did, he'd run the risk of bankrupting his business and idling his entire staff. Who would benefit from that?
Sure, everyone likes comfort and security, but no honest man wants to receive a paycheck that exceeds the value of his services. No honest man wants to go to work every day and have nothing to do. An occupation, after all, is meant to keep us busy. It may be human nature to avoid pain and seek the path of least resistance, but aren't the highlights of our lives just those moments when the most is demanded of us and we surprise ourselves by rising to the occasion? Don't we feel the greatest satisfaction when we overcome the greatest obstacles? Wouldn't we all be better off if we reclaimed some of that rugged individualism that made America great?
