Look where deregulation has gotten us

Robert B. Elliott, Las Vegas

Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

Starting with the “Reagan Revolution,” it was all the rage among Republicans to deregulate every industry and to trust the “law” of supply and demand and “market forces” (i.e., the “invisible hand”) to magically balance out the various competing interests, such as those of big business and local communities or individual citizens.

These past two weeks or so are a perfect example of how well such naive theory actually works in practice. There are lots of hands in the mix but none is invisible (although some are carefully concealed). Those hands have grabbed virtually all the wealth of this great nation in the space of two decades and left the rest of us more or less empty-handed. The owners of those hands will retire in phenomenal luxury on private islands or secluded estates, while the people who have done the heavy lifting will die still doing the heavy lifting or without the bare necessities of life.

We have the mendacity, simplicity and obtuseness of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the Republican majority for much of the last decade to thank for this state of affairs. There is no way to shift the blame to anyone else. They railroaded capitalism run amok down our throats and now we will all pay the price.

This election, isn’t it time to put the adults back in charge?