The United States got off to a powerful start by having:
- A Rule of Law through our Constitution
- A Free Market
- People who were predominantly honest with a strong work ethic
The Free Market, with a foundation of honest, hard-working people and a Rule of Law, is the best way for a nation to build technology and have the highest standard of living possible. Nothing else is as good. It is why America has been so strong. It is why and how America has saved the world from domination by despots.
Governments like the former Soviet Union used Central Planners to allocate resources while the United States and other free nations used the Free Market. The Soviet Union was using the intelligence of a few central planners, while, especially the United States, was using the intelligence of millions of its citizens night and day. Dollar Votes that are cast nonstop gather intelligence and build technology. For example, people buy flip phones until they see others using phones that use the internet. Then, they start using their dollar votes to buy “smart phones”. In this way, technology grows rapidly.
I had a friend who visited Moscow in the late 1980’s. He came back to tell our class that the hotel only had shells of computers but no actual computers. The Soviets were trying to “keep up”, but they could not because they did not have a strong robust Free Market to build the technology.
Since nothing can take the place of a Free Market with its Dollar Votes being cast round the clock 365 days a year, why have we not figured out that we can have the same powerful force building technology in Education? If we had this going for us, mothers and fathers would be looking for the best place to educate their children, and then they would use their dollar votes to buy that education with a voucher system. Some Home Schooling mothers have found ways that are placing their children at the head of the pack. If those ways were used and available to the public, dollar votes would be cast for those ways, and the growth of those better techniques would flourish.
It is astonishing to me that we have not realized this in our nation and started using this powerful method for educating our children.
Charlene Merrill has a degree in Economics and is a member of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee.