America: In the Beginning……….

Now is the time in the history of this experience that we call America when we, as Americans, should debate the role and value of government and the role and value of the private marketplace which is missing in our contemporary politics.  Before the debate can have real meaning, one would have to revisit the beginning with the desires of the Framers of the Constitution.

The Preamble to the Constitution has no force in law; instead, it establishes the “Why” of the Constitution.  Why is this document in existence?  It reflects the desires of the Framers to improve on the government to be “more perfect.”

…..We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Part of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776):

…..We hold these truths to be self-evidence, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, the among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Of course this did not include African Americans or women until later when Amendments were added.

So why are we moving toward a society in this great America experience in which everything is up for sale?  Before the financial crisis of 2008, there was an era of triumphalism that started in early 1980, when former President Ronald Reagan and Britain’s Margaret Thatcher proclaimed their conviction that markets, not government, held the key to prosperity and freedom.  This notion of markets idealism continued with former President Bill Clinton and Tony Blair who consolidated the faith that markets are the primary means for achieving the public good.

Today, that faith is in doubt.  The era of market triumphalism has come to an end.  There should be a moral limit on markets if we are to achieve a balance in the public and private sectors in our society.  The reach of markets, and market-oriented thinking, into non-market norms is one of the most significant developments of our time.  For example, consider the proliferation of for-profit hospitals, schools, prisons and the outsourcing of war to private military contractors such as the ones used in Iraq and Afghanistan.  These uses of markets to allocate health, education, public safety, national security, criminal justice, environmental protection, recreation, procreation, and other social goods was not as prevalent thirty years ago.

Today, the logic of buying and selling in the public and private domain no longer applies to material goods alone but increasingly governs the whole of our lives.  If the experience called America is to become a more “perfect Union,” we must debate the limits of free markets.