Capitalism, as of lately, seems to be under siege from all directions. The CEO of General Motors was forced to step down last week. This would not typically raise any eyebrows, particularly with the current state of the auto giant. Disgruntled stakeholders do have the power to depose a CEO. What makes this situation grossly different, that this time the stakeholder was the federal government. Since the auto maker accepted large sums of bailout money they have effectively turned themselves into a puppet with the government holding the strings. Chrysler is being forced into a merger with Fiat, an Italian automotive company, and Banks are not allowed to pay back government backed loans, loans the banks were forced to take. People are cloaking themselves with fear and ignorance as the winds of change blow.

As the recession deepens and fear takes hold, calls for increased federal regulation, oversight, and intervention gets louder. The federal government has taken stakes in the automotive and financial industry. Automotive warranties are now backed by the federal government. The Pay for Performance Act, which just passed the House, would regulate pay to financial institutions that received federal aid, willing or unwilling. Our elected officials have used the current fear and unrest caused by the economic situation as catalyst to impose their will on private industry.

As a majority of the populations views on the state of the country’s economy are governed day-to-day on whether the DOW plunges or rises, the politicians see an opportunity to entrench themselves in the private sector. Fear and uncertainty has a death grip on America and politicians are positioning themselves, their parties, their branches of government as saviors. Rather than being the wise captains our elected officials are supposed to be, they navigate the boat of America in knee jerk reactions. They navigate the river desperately trying to avoid the fictional eddies of economical collapse, unfair pay, and the consequences of an auto bankruptcy, all the while not looking a little further ahead to the whirlpool of socialism they ignorantly sail towards. The American people take solace with the politicians who stand confidently and eloquently on the nightly news, pandering their wares of federal regulation and intervention, while at the same time begging for time and patients. In reality, our elected officials are acting in a manner unbecoming. In reality our elected officials are like a child, a child being swept away by a current, so they flail their arms in an inefficient and ineffective manner as they try to reach the comfort of shore. When the current has disposed them in calmer waters down they beach. They take pride in themselves at all the hard work they have done, yet they are too tried to drag themselves out of the water.

We have let fear crack the pillar of confidence, confidence we had in ourselves to overcome any obstacle. President Kennedy once said, the American people were willing to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty”. Have we strayed so far from these eloquent words of strength and confidence in our abilities? Each step the government takes into managing the private sector, is a step away from liberty. We are impulsively giving up private control of our commercial sector to the government, as if the government is some wise and knowledgeable overseer. The federal government lost its identity and now seeks to create one. The current president is quoted to have said “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks” when speaking about the financial industry. Since when is it the governments role to stand between the American people and the private sector? Since when is it the governments role to regulate the pay of private industry? To decide who will manage its companies? To pass unconstitutional taxes on specific monetary bonuses? To manage auto warranties? We can no longer let fear of the unknown drive us toward bad policy. We must lead with our hearts and our minds, no longer letting our childish urges rule the day. The government needs to be reminded, they serve the people, and not itself. It is no longer o.k. for the government to grant itself more and more power. It is a sad day when our elected officials lack the wisdom to realize this. It is time for us, the American people, to bail the government out, to save the government from itself.