Laissez-faireism Exposed

Smoky Lake Signal Article No.224 (June 6, 2012) Whispering in the Wind The world’s “developed nations” are suffering from a political crisis of monumental proportions and nobody with any political status seems to have a correction strategy, or any sort of a plan to address the negative effects of laissez-faireism and globalization on individual nations such as Canada. To translate the term laissez-faire, it means, “to let people do as they wish” and if one not-so-cynically applies it to the corporate world, “to let companies do as they wish.” In today’s lexicon, libertarianism is the political philosophy that is most closely associated with the principles of laissez-faireism – libertarianism believes in individual freedom, liberty and minimal government and to a significant degree reflects the views of Danielle Smith, leader of the Alberta Wildrose Party – even Steven Harper has been associated with at least some of the principles of libertarianism. What I find disturbing is that today’s political leaders (both in Canada and elsewhere) have not learned anything from the reality and experiences of history – in the 1920s the economic circumstances of laissez-faireism emerged in Europe and North America, a time that is often labeled the Roaring Twenties – the lack of government action against the so called Robber Barons of the 1920s led to the Great Depression; which then led to the growth of extreme nationalism and World War II.