The Capitalist War on Free Markets

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts

It’s no secret that I dislike Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts. I voted against him twice, and cannot fathom how anybody thought him prepared to administer our state. So last week, when he announced his cheap “beef passport” gimmick, a glamorized rewards card to encourage Nebraskans to eat more beef, I originally disregarded his stunt. Governor Ricketts is notorious for low-risk stunts that draw attention but accomplish little.

Then Wyoming said “hold my beer.”

A bill percolating through Wyoming’s legislature would authorize the state to sue other states that don’t purchase Wyoming coal. Traditionally a ranching state with little manufacturing, Wyoming’s economic base transitioned into coal-mining and related industries through the 1960s and 1970s. I have cousins working the Wyoming coal pits, so my sympathies certainly lie with coal miners. But this is a mind-bogglingly stupid answer to the situation.

While Pete Ricketts uses the “carrot” approach to manipulating markets, Wyoming governor Mark Gordon uses the “stick.” Ricketts creates meaningless rewards to trick people into believing they have something invested in continuing their behavior. Gordon just threatens those who don’t comply, knowing that even if his threats don’t work, resisting him will be costly. Neither seems willing to let market forces apply, and I find that telling.

These governors, both Republicans, represent the party that nominally believes Capitalism, which they define as market forces, are inherently good. Remember, Republican leadership spent 2020 insisting that providing working Americans a little salutary support during the worst pandemic in living memory, was tantamount to creeping Bolshevism. Yet when faced with market forces that don’t reward the status quo, from which their states have profited, they turn virtually Trotskyite.

Retail stores create loyalty programs to tie customers, particularly young customers without time-tested buying habits, to one store. Purchase five hamburgers, get the sixth free! It creates the illusion of commitment. But be serious, people already either eat red meat or don’t. Despite Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ recent attempt to bring back meatless Mondays, no carnivores are likely to forego beef unless they’re officially compelled to.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon

Coal, meanwhile, is disappearing from markets because it’s unnecessary. Burning hydrocarbons is environmentally reckless, especially coal, tainted with sulfur. Equally important, cleaner energy generation technologies, like wind, solar, and nuclear, have advanced sufficiently that they’re cheaper than coal. Maintaining coal-burning technology simply to invent a market for a resource that’s costly, dirty, and outdated, is far more anti-capitalist than stimulus checks during the pandemic.

Yet here we are. Can you imagine elected officials manipulating markets to keep other technologies afloat? Whale oil, muzzle-loaders, Betamax. Historically, technologies have become outdated, products have fallen out of demand, and people who made those products needed to realign themselves to the changing market. But these Republican governors, one with known Presidential aspirations, have chosen another tack: seizing control of markets to stop unwanted change.

As an ex-Republican, I find that amazeballs. The party I formerly supported believed markets drove morality: that if something was worth money, people would pay for it, and if nobody will pay for it, that proves it’s worthless. That’s why Republicans resist public recycling programs, research into alternative energy, and other attempts to fix broken markets. A dollar freely spent, to paleoconservatives, is the ultimate yardstick for public morality.

Until, apparently, it isn’t. Ricketts and Gordon both bring their offices’ might to bear in ensuring markets obey their whims. Ricketts, born rich, and Gordon, a successful rancher, have profited mightily from markets that favored their products and services. Yet apparently, both believe the market forces which propelled their family to prominence, should continue unchanged forever. When people want less meat or less coal, public demand is wrong, not the market.

I say this, knowing literally unrestrained markets have never really propelled American economics. Our government created growth markets by chasing Native Americans off their land, then repackaging the spoils as “homesteads.” We encouraged certain development schemes by putting dams, with their cheap electricity, along the Colorado River. America enjoys (if that’s the word) Earth’s cheapest gasoline because our government subsidizes petroleum.

Ricketts and Gordon’s maneuvers aren’t deviations from paleoconservative economics; they’ve just admitted aloud what we news junkies have always known. Our government picks winners, then manipulates markets to ensure the early adopters, mostly campaign contributors, are well rewarded. It always has. These aspiring leaders of Republican ideology have simply admitted such out loud for the first time.

It’s up to us, the voters, to ensure they wear the shameful consequences of their actions for all the world to see.