RALEIGH – There are many different ways to express the fundamental difference between advocates of liberty and advocates of big government. Today, I’ll offer these labels: pro-competition and pro-monopoly.
In general, the Right welcomes competition. We think that consumers are best served when there are no artificial constraints to private firms competing for their business. We also think that citizens are poorly served when governments monopolize a service, which is why we favor such public policies as competitive sourcing, school choice, consumer-driven health care, and the privatization of transportation assets such as ports and railroads.
In general, the Left disdains competition. They think that consumers are best served when private firms have to pay fees, get permission, and comply with artificial constraints on competition such as protective tariffs and insurance mandates. They also think that citizens are best served when governments monopolize services, which is why they oppose public policies such as school choice and privatization and favor a larger governmental role in health insurance and day care.
Of course, there are a few stray counterexamples. Some self-described conservatives like protectionism or oppose consumer choice in particular areas. Some self-described liberals or progressives favor free trade and certain kinds of school choice. But for the most part, the competition/monopoly dichotomy is a pretty handy way of describing political differences.
Look at what’s happening in the gambling business in North Carolina.
Granted, some conservatives simply don’t want gambling to exist at all in our state. I understand their sentiment, but I do not agree that prohibition is a worthwhile or achievable goal. People should be free to do whatever they want with their own money, and from the beginning of human history some people have wanted to gamble with it. I think that’s often a foolish and risky decision, but I think it’s generally best to mind one’s own business.
For the most part now, however, the debate about gambling concerns who gets to own and operate the gambling establishments. With a few heroic exceptions on the Left, the liberals have decided that gambling is best monopolized by the state.
First, legislative leaders banned private operation of video poker machines in North Carolina. Now, the executives of North Carolina’s state lottery want to set up 550 vending machines across the state to sell lottery tickets.
It’s a tidy set-up, don’t you think? Public employees and politically favored vendors get to use government muscle to shut down their competition so they can take North Carolina gamblers to the cleaners. State lotteries offer some of the worst odds in the gambling business because they can. If casino operators in Las Vegas or Atlantic City tried to gouge their customers the way state lotteries do, they’d quickly lose market share to their competitors.
Competition is good for consumers, particularly if powered by effective advertising. Monopolies and cartels, created and sustained by government taxes and regulations, are bad for consumers.
Seems pretty clear cut to me.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation