11 July, 2002

Letter to the Editor:

In the true fashion of the Bush administration, rejecting principles and acting on the expediency of the moment, President Bush has once again confused the good guys and the bad guys and declared war on American Business.

Just as his foreign policy has the US building coalitions with terrorist sponsoring nations in an effort to fight terror, and betraying our one true ally -- Israel -- by asking them to treat murderers as diplomats, Bush now condemns American Business -- which makes our country great -- and allies himself with Big Government-- which fosters the type of corruption that makes companies like Enron possible.

Rather than attack the root cause, which lies in price controls, environmental regulations, and government limitations on the production and distribution of electricity in the state of California, Bush instead attempts to distance himself by condemning not just Enron, but American Business in general. Further, he fails to place equal blame on Big Government for creating the type of environment that fosters the type of corruption found at Enron.

Just as Bush's response to terrorism is not to eliminate the threat by waging war against Iran, Iraq, and the PLO, but rather create new bureaucracies such as the Department of Homeland Security, his response to corporate fraud is to create new laws rather than enforce those which already exist.

Each year thousands of violent crimes are committed, such as rape, murder, and robbery. Does government respond by declaring that new laws are necessary to combat this? No, the laws are already clear and it is just a matter of apprehending the perpetrators. But when just one or two corporations, out of millions, commit fraud, it is now time to protect us from the evils of corporate America with talk of new laws and jail time.

Notice that Bush does not go after Enron in particular, but declares that it is time to "Get tough" with corporate America in general. If it were just a matter of going after one scofflaw corporation, it would not be a matter for the federal government. The implicit message here is that it is not just companies like Enron that we have to be on guard against, but American Business as such.

Now we are to assume that all businessmen are guilty until proven innocent. As Ayn Rand pointed out in Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, the businessman is America's most persecuted minority. As evidence, just look at the massive regulations, as in California, and the random attacks, such as the antitrust suit against Microsoft. President Bush, I say to you, "let's go after the real enemies of America -- abroad, any and all terrorist nations who hate Capitalism; and in our own country, Big Government, which undermines Capitalism's foundation."

Eric J. Lakits
Germany