MLA Report: Few can compare to Thatcher on handling a struggling economy

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 20, 2019.

Despite our best efforts, the world’s economic market has never been easy to manage or influence. During times of economic hardship, it has often been the first instinct of a government to exert more control over the marketplace rather than trusting what Adam Smith’s economic theories referred to as the “Law of Supply and Demand.” With the rise of socialism in the mid-20th century, many countries, including England began to feel the burden of economic responsibility, with more and more public services depending on the taxpayer dime.

A great many leaders made their name during this politically charged mid-century climate, heavily dominated by fears of a powerful communist Russia, but few can compare to the late Margaret Thatcher and the tenacity with which she addressed her country’s economic crisis.

Thatcher operated based on an open market system, she understood that a free market can adjust naturally to the regular ups and downs that come with economic change and progress.

She was very aware of the negative impact a top down government approach can have on a country’s citizens based on her life experience and observations as she grew up around her family’s small business.

Thatcher argued that a government is not well situated to be able to meet the needs of working people and changing dynamics, as it has access to limited amounts of information. This type of blind decision making generally leads to the obstruction, rather than the improvement, of economic operations.

Thatcher proposed that a free market system is unbiased, highly responsive and in turn, able to meet the ever-changing needs of people despite continent or culture.

It was this practical thinking that made way for revitalization and growth in Britain, a country dealing with gross amounts of inflation and out of control public spending at the onset of her election as prime minister in 1979.

Over the course of her leadership, Thatcher promoted small business and future investments by reducing red tape, distributing power more evenly within trade unions and privatizing large state-owned corporations and basic utilities.

She invested in hardworking families by enabling them to buy their previously government owned homes and ended taxpayer subsidized corporate bailouts.

True economic freedom allows entrepreneurial pursuits and the ability to create wealth regardless of economic disparity. It allows money to stay within a community and gives individuals a broad range of options when it comes to employment. A free market encourages a fair wage for needed services and enables employees and employers to negotiate on a fair playing field.

So, what does all that mean for present day Albertans?

Over the past decade we have watched as our dollar value has dropped and our debt has risen. Our resources have been restricted by endless amounts of red tape and many of our public services have declined in outcomes while demanding greater funding. We have seen our bargaining entities abolish secret ballots for unionized workers, and in turn, allowing democracy to fall to the back burner.

From one Albertan to another, its safe to say, we’ve seen better times.

It is with economic freedom in mind however, that the United Conservative’s submitted a federal court challenge in their ongoing effort to remove restrictions from our resource sector. Our government is working to encourage investment and create jobs and above all else, greatly reduce and eventually eliminate massive provincial debt. The UCP government is already working to be reinstitute secret ballots and improve democracy within unions and help decrease strain on the healthcare system by re-privatizing inner services to improve overall efficiency.

It is through the pursuit of an open market that Alberta will begin to regain competition, investment, self-reliance and maybe even hope.

While we can’t directly control the market, if Alberta can be allowed to pursue economic freedom, maybe we can begin to reestablish faith in a naturally occurring market driven by hard working people and basic financial principles.

Drew Barnes is MLA (UCP) for Cypress-Medicine Hat constituency.

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