he Libertarian Party of Georgia says “We told you so!” Back in November we commented on the government’s decision to limit the pay of CEOs at companies that accepted TARP money (“The Government Should Not Limit CEO Pay (Or Anyone’s)”, http://mail.lpgeorgia.com/blog.php?article=66). At that time we had no sympathy for the companies that entered the devil’s bargain of accepting government bailout money. We warned “It is our belief that state control of [TARP recipient companies] CEO pay would merely be a precursor to government setting of ALL pay rates, which would destroy at least two important aspects of liberty: the right of everyone to enter into contracts, and the right of property owners to control their property.
On Wednesday, May 13, 2009 the Wall Street Journal reported “The [Obama administration] initiative, which is in its early stages, is part of an ambitious and likely controversial effort to broadly address the way financial companies pay employees and executives, including an attempt to more closely align pay with long-term performance.” (Read the WSJ article here.) Sure enough, the TARP company pay restrictions were the camel’s nose in the tent that we foresaw.
Some people say the Obama administration is the reincarnation of Jimmy Carter. But the instituting of wage controls puts us more in mind of Richard Nixon — and that can’t be good.
Now as in November, our problem with government mandated pay caps is the meddling by government in private sector contracts. The state’s sole role in private company salaries is protecting “the Obligation of Contracts” as dictated in Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia platform states “Efforts to redistribute wealth…through the coercive power of the state are incompatible with individual freedom.” Our conclusion is “Government intervention in the economy imperils both that freedom and the material prosperity of all. We therefore support…the repeal of all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits, and production.”
It is our position that any effort to “more closely align pay with long-term performance” be directed at the 535 US Senators and Representatives who are passing laws willy-nilly that are making the current economic problems worse, and which will make the recession last longer. It is those people, sworn to “uphold the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic,” whose craven, poll-driven votes are undermining the liberties ensconced in that document.
In the last years of the Bush 43 administration Republicans spent our money like the proverbial drunken sailors. In the first 133 days of the Obama regime, the Democrats are planning to destroy capitalism and severely limit any concept of individual liberty.
The Libertarian Party is America’s only hope to restore limited government, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. Support your Libertarian Party of Georgia — or else we’ll just get more of the same-old same-old.
