The conservative movement usually does get a few things right, much more so than the Left, which is why I’d rather have them in charge than Leftists. Granted, not many Republicans who get to the heights of power are conservative these days, but if there was another solid conservative like Ronald Reagan, I would seriously consider voting for him or her.
The one thing that conservatives do tend to get right is that many things that the government currently does should be privatized. Health care is a major one considering that the Left decided they could do better than private individuals when it comes to health care. And while I have my doubts as to whether or not the Republicans will ever make a decent attempt at repealing Obamacare, I know that the conservative movement, by and large, supports a total repeal of the bill.
But there are a great many other things that conservatives don’t ever consider when it comes to privatization. Despite their love affair with the free market, at the end of the day they’ll choose war over free trade because that’s been their nature since about 1955. So when you begin a discussion about free markets with conservatives, be prepared to limit them to the few things they actually want privatized and don’t bother discussing the fundamental concept behind free markets: the value of property rights.
When most people hear about property rights, they think about the houses they’ve bought or the cars they drive. They tend not to consider what property really is. From the libertarian perspective, anything that is material can be owned by someone, so long as that person can maintain ownership. In a civil society, this usually involves some kind of proof of ownership and a common respect for another individual’s property. In a not so civil society, this usually involves protecting your property with force. Either way, anything you own is your property and you have a right to it, which is one of most basic cornerstones of liberty-minded thought.
Every time I hear conservatives discuss the role of government in our lives, they will never mention that it can be optional. Often times, you will hear about how the government is needed for ‘public’ (that word should be substituted for ‘government’ at all times) goods and usually that is roads and schools. While matters of justice and defense from foreign invaders are a subject for debate even among liberty minded individuals, these are usually agreed upon as not being necessary for any level of government to manage.
Government schools came about as a result of the progressive movement, a largely Leftist movement, and while many of the people who pushed for government schools in the late 1800s were Christians this does not automatically make them conservative. Conservatives sometimes have trouble realizing that just because someone is Christian, it doesn’t mean they are conservative or liberty-minded. Granted, many know better after President Jimmy Carter, but I still encounter fools who won’t see the forest before the trees (or whatever metaphor is better than that). In fact, if you do a little research on the history of ‘public’ schooling, you’ll see a lot of secular progressives who wanted to circumvent the teachings of the Church in favor of the teachings of the State. If only I could get my wife to read some of this material, then she would whole-heartedly agree with my determination to homeschool any children we have.
Roads is another one and this one is a bit tougher because there was no progressive movement to have the government make roads. They just kind of did it and everyone accepted it. However, these days road-building has become a huge central planning tool (and it probably was back in the day) where local and state officials will create new communities when they pave new roads. Instead of letting market forces handle the demand for roads, all levels of government have taken it upon themselves to pave roads, maintain roads, and generally plan out where people are going to work, live, and play. The reality is, the government should not plan our places for us, but respond to the free market, as a worse case. Unfortunately, hardly anyone is really interested in privatizing the development and maintenance of our roadways and I doubt that will be the case any time soon.
Other things that conservatives don’t even consider are the radio waves where private companies and individuals should own radio frequencies for a certain radius. That way, we don’t have to debate over what authority the FCC has since they’ll end up non-existent. Conservatives generally don’t consider this, however, because they like the fact that the FCC keeps obscenities off the air. Frankly, I’ve never understood how hard it was to simply turn the station off.
Another thing is the airspace that airplanes travel in. If a private company owned that airspace, they could manage it how they wanted. In some cases, people may actually buy airspace in order to keep planes at a certain height when they fly over their own property, in an example, rather than having to appeal to the local, state, and/or Federal officials demanding that air traffic be redirected. Which would you rather deal with: a bureaucrat who can’t be fired, a politician who can’t be voted out of office, or an individual whose monetary interests are more directly tied to your contentment?
I have never considered ‘public’ services to be ‘public’. I always view them as government services that are created for the benefit of a voting public, but at the end of the day they are subject to the whims of bureaucrats and politicians alike where as the free market usually seeks to benefit themselves through the voluntary transactions of individuals. Customer service is always better when a person’s financial interests are on the line. I’ve hardly ever meant a mean cashier at a retail store. I know they exist, but they’re rare. However, I’ve heard plenty of horror stories from government ‘services’ like the IRS, DMV, and the Post Office, just to name a few.
In short, I believe that while conservatives have a good attitude towards privatization, I think they just need to take it a few steps forward and push for less government services and more private services in just about everything the government currently does. It’s usually a tough sell, I know, but given that many conservatives are prone to rational thinking, it can be done.