How Government Impacts Free Market Negatively

Many industries face regulations that impede true competition. One need only look at daycare in Quebec to see how government involvement in the market place is not only unhealthy but patently unfair. It's unfair because they play favorites; mostly to the lobbyists with the most muscle.

Leavings aside the scourge that is unions, I focus on corporatism also connected to cronyism. This doesn't exist without a state-corporate partnership. Some may call it fascism which essentially is the merging of corporate and government interests.

Liberals are unreasonably and irrationally terrified of REAL free-markets. A free-market is nothing more than the interactions of like-minded people free to exchange goods and services. It can also be extended to the free exchange of ideas.

Liberals focus way too much on the negative output of trade among free people. That's life. Competition has winners and losers. The key to this equation is that the losers learn a lesson and valuable experiences to give it a second go. In this way, the real cynics and extremists are liberals. They interfere in places they don't belong. It is here we begin market distortions because driven by ideals predicated on the belief they do right by all, they create laws and regulations than in effect are actually anything but.

By then, the fire has already spread as they walk away to repeat the failed ideal in other places.

All this garbage about there's no such thing as a free-market is indoctrinated gibberish spewed out by far leftists masking as liberals. Or that it would be a "free for all" and the "wild-west."

Getting back to daycare as an example. My three years in the business has done nothing but cement my belief that the social-democratic model in economics is a flimsy shell game of stale money circulating and changing the same hands.

It's called tax-credits and subsidies.

We don't have a real market. We have a pseudo-market where the game is 'rigged' not in the way the Elizabeth Warren's of this world think but rather the other way around - and WE ALL LOSE.

That is, the consumer be they poor or rich, white or black, French-speaking or English-speaking. YOU get screwed when the government steps in. But it's not apparent because you ostensibly get something in return. A "freebie." Be it "free" whatever.

Case in point.

I'm a private operator. As such, I actually shop and research what I buy. If I were to blindly go the direction the government asks (and sometimes coerces) it would cost me money senselessly.

The way it's set up they funnel you towards one or two equipment distributors and they further restrict the pool of access to various companies for a variety of things creating "special daycare permits."

Scam #1 let's call it.

More often than not, the "accredited" companies are no better than the local guy "out of the reseau" who can put something together at a fraction of the cost.

I had to buy a multi-seat carriage for babies. If I bit and went the route "suggested" it would cost me $3600 for a six-seater. Instead, I went local and bought a hand-made eight-seater for $650.

Now, some of you may be wondering: But what about the quality?

The quality in the hand-made one is not just better I would argue; it's superior. It's made with solid wood. Nothing beats wood my friends when put together right. It uses all these "old world" parts that seems "cheap" to modern eyes but in reality are of unsurpassed quality.

It's simple things really. Instead of using big, thin wheels, it has stocky tires you can put on a moped.

So the company is carving itself a niche in the market.

Healthy.

We all benefit.

Guess what? The big companies don't like it. They don't want their big mark-ups being eroded by uppity upstarts. So they try and bully the small guys and use their political connections to have laws changed in their favor.

And like patsies, the government follows.

This is part of the process liberals tend to overlook; that this relationship actually hurts the people they purport to help.

Then they try all the useless "safety" illusions to sell their products. It has this feature and that feature which in reality just jack up the price for nothing. Sometimes, when you focus on gadgets, quality is compromised. I bet my bottom dollar my bus made of wood will outlast any plastic one on the market. 

Can't have competition, right? It's too hard to stay on your toes constantly keeping an eye out for competitors. Nah. Easier to coerce.

So, fuck 'em. They don't get my business. I can think for myself and usually, my research steers me away from government mandated stuff.

****

Speaking of the government. They sure played a nice trick on the public perception of what constitutes a good daycare. The line is basically "private bad" and "public good." All they got in their arsenal is to demonize private enterprise as that little leader of that small-minded party do constantly.

It's a false dichotomy they came up with when in reality there's good and bad on both sides.

The one thing I real argue is that there's a tendency for the public system to become formulaic, institutionalized and stagnant.

For examples, we get our fair share of silly comments here. It flusters my educators because there's a perception that CPE educators are more educated and "qualified" than those in the private sector.

Nothing and I mean nothing can be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, we have more creative juices flowing on our side because parents constantly challenge us. Public daycares have no such issues. It's a double edged sword. While it spares them headaches, it actually lulls the into a false sense of security that they offer a superiour product.

Private daycare centers, the good ones, are constantly keeping up with the latest trends and philosophies from around the world. The government is more reactionary on that front. They are not experts in the field and tend to use a 'copy paste' approach to things. You won't see them innovating nor talking about, say, The Reggio Way.

And good luck trying to be creative now that their workers are unionized.

So with all that I explain to my educators this is a blessed advantage. It keeps us in a constant evolving dynamic. We already know the government approach is not one we feel comfortable with and this is great for the market; for parents who are of like mind.

Nothing insults me more than listening to comments that compare us to CPE's. We don't have the resources they have and we don't engage in politics like they do. Too often, on the government side they forget what business they're in and take to the streets for "better" working conditions.

But in a highly paternalistic, anti-business society like Quebec it's difficult to do so because in the eyes of the public, we're for profit and that's bad here.

We cater to and attract parents that hold similar values to us. It's not just about cost and economics but the overall well-being of the child - that has no cost except a value.

That's the dividing line here. We have to navigate through it. My job is to see the positives in that and convey it to my staff. See the strengths and exploit them.