Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” was published in 1776, the same year as the Declaration of Independence, and it was just as revolutionary. The work explains that in a free enterprise system the free choice of the consumer, like the corollary free vote of the citizen, would determine what products would be produced in the marketplace. Everyone in such a marketplace was free to produce, free to choose, and free to purchase for the benefit of the consumer and to the general benefit and prosperity of the whole society. Smith’s revolutionary work did away with the feudal system of having to have a tyrant’s favor to produce goods in the tyrant’s marketplace, for the despot’s “subjects.” There was no choice.
When Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he immediately attacked our economy’s energy sector via executive orders, administrative regulations, and cutting off federal land leases for energy exploration and development. The effects of such an onslaught were predictable. When you make energy costs higher, every product that is shipped from point A to point B will cost more. Every product produced in a plant that uses electricity will cost more. Every service facility, such as hospitals and schools, will cost more to operate.
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