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The State Religion of the United States

Now, to a certain extent this is not bad. Capitalism has its faults, but it has proven, empirically, to be the best way of creating goods and services. Wealth is good. I like having a nice car and a nice place to live and cool computer stuff.

Many people, however, elevate capitalism to the status of a religion. These cultists, many of whom count themselves as "fiscal conservatives", generally can be spotted citing Adam Smith in congressional chambers, and their Bible is "The Wealth of Nations". Now, nevermind that most of Adam Smith's ideas have been thoroughly discredited by the facts over the years. A true believer never worries about the facts. They have their Bible, and they believe every word is Truth, no matter what evidence you put in their face, because they are Believers, members of a cult religion, and like all members of cult religions do not have a firm grasp on reality.

But even that is not so worrisome, except that so many of our leaders are members of this cult. They have elevated worship of Adam Smith and the Almighty Dollar to be the national religion, forgetting the whole pre-amble of the Constitution of the United States:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

That's right, the purpose of government is to promote the general welfare and preserve basic order and liberty. The purpose of government is NOT to promote a state religion. Now, it happens that, for the most part, promoting the general welfare means promoting a free market economy. However, in those cases where an abuse of the free market hurts people -- such as, fraud, contracts that take away rights granted to people by their Creator, etc. -- it is not only a moral imperative to right this wrong, it is the whole PURPOSE of government to right this wrong, for government is supposed to be of the people, for the people. Government is not supposed to be the servant of an arcane religion full of mystical incantations. Government is supposed to serve the people, not a cult.

In general the free market serves us well. However, there are various areas where capitalism has failed miserably at promoting the general welfare. For example, even rich people today cannot get treated at an emergency room in the United States in less than six hours. In Canada, the typical whipping bitch of the capitalism cult, you can walk into any emergency room and be treated immediately. In those areas where capitalism has failed, government can, and should, intervene. It should use the methods of capitalism where possible and appropriate -- e.g., by providing cheap or free insurance to the unemployed and uninsured (so that they can get medical care at their doctor's office, rather than clogging emergency rooms when they get so sick they're about to die) rather than by nationalising the entire health system -- simply because the methods of capitalism tend to be more efficient and effective. But saying that the government should not step in where the market has failed simply because that's what the Cult of John Smith holds is not public policy -- it is religion. And religion has no business running our government.