The Private Sector Never Produced Anything of Value

The government is responsible for all that is good and beneficial and innovative. That's the latest meme emanating from the left.



The purpose is to justify government intervention in the private sector and, especially, more "investments" in green energy and other boondoggles and forays into crony capitalism. If they can convince us that nothing good ever came but for the involvement of the government, then we'll be more likely to look past debacles like Solyndra and approve of more such gambles in the future.

One of my favorites, though is when they attempt to take credit for the Internet. Sure, the basic structure was developed by researchers working for the Department of Defense. But the Internet is the Internet because government hasn't been involved in its development.

The reason the Internet exists as it does today is because the private sector has been given virtually free rein to develop it. It hasn't been subject to the licensing, permitting, regulations, restrictions, red tape, cronyism and bureaucracy that characterize government intervention in every other area of our lives.

Had the government not turned over the Internet over to the private sector and moved out of the way, or regulated it like it does nearly every other communications medium, it's unlikely we'd have progressed very far past the old online services like America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe by now. The transition from these online services to ISPs would likely have been slow and hampered by regulatory interference.

Government-sponsored research certainly has produced some breakthroughs that the private sector has been able to develop into successful consumer products and services that have improved our lives. But the contention the left is currently trying to push - that everything good or beneficial or innovative that has ever happened has been the product of government - is just an excuse to justify even more unnecessary and expensive interventions in the economy, your lives and your wallets.