Competition At The Core Of High Prices?

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The editor at the Beloit Daily News believes government is not responsive to the peoples needs. To that I can agree, but the needs he mentions are high price and cost problems that have snowballed as the consequences of the drive to create wealth free of government interference.

HERE'S WHAT he thinks may turn voters' heads for 2008:

Election 2008: They still don’t get it:
* The price of gasoline and household energy.

* Rising prices for groceries, airline tickets and all the other items tied to energy/transportation costs.

* Continued stagnation in wages for workers. And those demoralizing frequent reports about how the super-rich are enjoying the best times ever.

* The migration of manufacturing jobs to other countries.

* The soaring price of sending a kid to college.

* The persistent whining for bigger government budgets, and spending that consistently rises at above-inflation rates.

* The pain of mortgage payers as adjustable rates set higher.

* Declining values for home sellers.

* Debt-ridden Americans who no longer can use their homes as ATM machines.

* The government's duplicitous performance and unwillingness to seal the borders.

* And, perhaps most important, the growing cynicism as Americans sense the politicians don't really care about them, that the political class is, (1) in it for themselves, and (2) a more-or-less wholly owned subsidiary of the rich and powerful.

I would have thought nothing of this editorial had I just not finished reading their take on Wisconsin's legislative action pertaining to the cable competition act.

Nowhere in the list of voter's concerns is the mention of Social Security, the Iraq War or health care, things the government and politicians can actually do something about.

According to the editorial, it’s all about high prices and costs in energy, food, outsourcing, education, home values, debt and airline tickets!! – consumer goods and business activities running unfettered according to faux free-enterprise market principles supported at it's core by none other than competition. Competition, the key word and ingredient espoused by newspaper editors, economic analysts and other "educated" capitalists as the golden road to lower prices. You can't have it both ways.

But after reading this, I can only guess the editor believes the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is not a problem, it's just those damn demoralizing reports that report it.

Other than restoring America's respect and trust throughout the world, particularly in the middle-east and South America, I don't know what any presidential candidate can do to lower market prices.

This editorial message can't be serious if the author really believes government should intervene in free enterprise to lower prices - so long as it doesn't involve Social Security, health care or taxes.