Truck and Barter

If you didn't catch the live presidential debate on the West Wing last night, the you missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to see an open debate with no ground rules, except the script of course. Actually, except for a couple of scripted pauses and audience interruptions, the debate was lively and believable. It would be interesting to experience an honest and open debate between two modern day candidates, but it is unlikely.

Although scripted, the debate included a terrific pro-free market response from Alan Alda's character (a lifelong Democrat playing a Republican character); a response to proposed alternative energy plans to reduce dependence on foreign oil and nuclear power.

I don't trust politicians to choose the right new energy sources. I believe in the free market. You know the government didn't switch us from whale oil to the oil found under the ground, the market did that.The government did not make the Prius the hotest selling car in Hollywood, that was the market that did that. You know, in LA now, the coolest thing you can drive is a hybrid. Well, if the free market can do that in the most car crazed culture on earth, then I trust the free market to solve our energy problems. You know the market has the power to change the way we think; to change what we want. The government can't do that. That is why the market has always been a better problem solver than the government, and it always will be.

Wether you agree or disagree with the politics, it is good to see sound economic theory making its way into television scripts.

[KB adds: Neither T&B or its members are receiving advertising revenue from the image -- or the link -- at left. And yes, I find a Republican Alan Alda very, very amusing.]