By Bradley Opitz

Each year, Earth Day is celebrated by many people all around the world. It is a day that is set aside for a time of reflection on the physical state of the earth, and to celebrate the planet that humanity has always called home.  Coincidentally, the day that has been set aside to celebrate earth coincides with the date of birth of a man named Vladimir Lenin.  Being that April, 22 is the date of two important events, it is rather fitting that close attention is paid to how economics has real effects on the physical well being of the earth.  No other form of governance has done more in damaging the earth and its precious resources than the collectivized and centralized of the 20th and 21st century.  Collectivist and Centralized economies, wherein bureaucrats choose how natural resources are allocated are a danger to the earth.  Within such economic systems, planners decide how resources are to be used, without full regard to the market demands or rather the choice of the people.

Governments, who practice a planned economy, like China, much of Europe and even the United States to some extent, allocates resources in both capital and goods to benefit political gains and corporate welfare.  The communist economy exploits goods and resources by positioning bureaucrats as heads of industry who in turn arbitrarily mandate quotas of such resources (human, natural, and refined) to be placed in production.  There is little to no regard to the needs of the individual person or even of whole communities. In the case of the former USSR, whole warehouses of farm equipment were left to rust due to the lack of demand and over supply.  In China whole towns are built that no one occupies.  Economies such as these pride themselves on their job creation and economic progress, and the money spent by the government boosts their GDP while the reality of things speaks to something that is entirely different.  The cost of such economic intervention is a sacrifice of:  human freedom, private property, genuine access to markets, and is grave misuse of natural resources.

Celebrate Earth Day by supporting the Free Market and learning how the Free Market conserves resources and employs them in accordance to our needs.