Conservatives Need Some Lessons on Economic Freedom

Being a libertarian-minded person (I don’t consider myself to be an ‘exact’ libertarian, but it’s close enough), I am astounded by the number of people who have no idea what true economic freedom means.  I am also astounded by how many people are afraid of letting the government regulations be completely removed from pretty much all industries and let the chaos of the free market bring us to prosperity.
Conservatives, by and large, should know better.  Unfortunately, they generally do not and this is one of the primary reasons why I don’t associate my ideological title with theirs anymore.  In most cases, conservatives are for free and open trade, but when it comes to certain things, they differ to the government rather than the market for things that really have nothing to do with true government functions.
A good example is the banking industry that we all live under right now.  I have heard time after time many conservatives talk about how the banking industry needs to be regulated by the government.  The reasons are the same that liberals use for pretty much all other industries, so why do they single out the banks in this manner?
For one thing, they do support the Federal Reserve and the system that is entailed with it.  While I can’t go into all the details why this is a fallacy, let’s just say that the Federal Reserve is a huge break from even the constitutional power of Congress to print money.  Under the current Federal Reserve system, the wealth of the middle class is slowly being drained away because of the inflated currency.  Do you really consider yourself middle class when both spouses have to work in order to sustain their lifestyle?
Another reason is the fear of a banking monopoly if the so-called restraints of government were taken off.  This is an absurd argument, especially considering that the banks already have a pretty nasty monopoly on us as it stands.  Do you think a software company could have coerced the government into bailing them out?  If Microsoft were about to go under, wouldn’t they have more influence on the American consumer than the banks?  I mean, if the banks collapsed, you would probably be forgiven most of your debt but if Microsoft went under, well, you’d see a lot of security exploits and hacks like no one’s business.  The point is, any industry could be more crucial than another and the only reason the banks got to extort us is because they were in the secret rooms providing false prophecies of doom and gloom.  And Congress drank the Kool-Aid on our behalf.
There are others they seem to forget could easily be handled in the free market.  NASA, for example, is a artifact from the Cold War and if there is any advantage to space exploration, I’m sure that the free market could find it and do a much better job than the government can.  The postal service is proving to be a waste of resources.  For me, I find myself throwing most of my mail out because it’s junk.  With the rise of the Internet and other telecommunications, most of which exist in the private markets, the postal service is becoming irrelevant in very short order.
There is hope though.  As more and more conservatives begin to interact with other Tea Party members, many of which are libertarian, we’ll see more of these free market ideas go out into their ranks.  With Ron Paul nearly winning a Republican straw poll (not a conservative one, just Republican), this demonstrates the politically active are leaning more to the libertarian side rather than close to the center right.  And with the likes of David Frum saying exactly the things that they don’t want to hear, it’ll only push conservatives in that direction.
At least I hope so.  I’m not a prophet and if I was, my blog wouldn’t be about politics.