Doctor Zero nails it again:

If you are motivated by a humanitarian desire to help the poor – the ostensible mission of much of the modern liberal state – you must realize that nothing helps them more than the increased standard of living and economic opportunity brought about by the private sector. Every government action that shrinks the private sector hurts the poor. It hurts everyone else, too, except for the political class, and the plutocrats who find ways to shape legislation to their benefit…but it hurts the poor the most. Consider the “stimulus” travesty Obama and the Democrats shoved down the nation’s throat. It stimulated nothing, and drained billions of dollars away from a private economy that could have used those resources better. It wasn’t merely a waste of money. The value of every wasted government dollar must be judged by what free enterprise could have accomplished with it. The untold tragedy of the economy is the hidden story of all the things free people could do, if we started emptying out some of those fortresses in Washington and returning their money to them. The economy we have today might make you angry, but the economy we could have should make you furious.

Exactly what would the private sector do with its money that would be so wonderful? I don’t know – and neither does anyone else, particularly anyone in Washington. If the six long months of this Administration serve any constructive purpose, it should be permanently dissolving the illusion that a small group of political appointees can predict what the economy will do, and control it to produce an improved outcome. There is a better plan for restoring our prosperity than anything being cooked up by Obama’s brain trust. In fact, there are thousands of them – and no single person knows them all. They are scattered through the minds of people from coast to coast, formulated by small business owners behind the wheels of work trucks, as well as executives in boardrooms. People working within the incentives of the free market – operating in local markets they know personally, or national markets their companies have studied for decades – will always be able to outperform a group of academics, whose first order of business is listing all the things they won’t even consider doing, because it would violate their ideology. You’re always better off placing your bets on organizations that strive to reward their shareholders, over those dedicated to rewarding contributors.

The best thing going for the poor is the increase in their standard of living brought about by the energy of free enterprise. The only way they can ever escape from poverty is by obtaining a good education, and getting a decent job. Big Government is a miserable failure at the former, and an active threat to the latter – as can be seen from the obscene cap-and-trade bill, or Obama’s health care proposals. Nothing should be a higher priority for the poor than slashing the size of government and radically cutting taxes. The free markets are always hiring. When they slow down, it’s because they aren’t free.

Do I even have to say it? Doc Zero, whoever he really is, is quite simply one of the best around. He’s doing what so many have said needs to be done to bring about a resurgence of limited-government principles: spelling them out, clearly, concisely, and with style. He’s not just one of the best around right now; he’s essential, making the case with each successive post for a return to our founding principles in a way that few have the skill to do. He’s doing one hell of a fine job, and my cap is humbly doffed to him.