Proper Function Of The Markets??

Initially it was the title of the article that caught my eye, but upon reading it at Reason
Online by Matt Welch titled Back to the Barricades it states pretty accurately my thoughts on our economy.

If you want to know when this country's political class, even those hailing
from the allegedly pro-market Republican Party, lost faith in the single
greatest economic organizing principle ever devised by mankind, look no further
than the following six terse sentences from Bush's decidedly unpresidential
speech: "I'm a strong believer in free enterprise. So my natural instinct is to
oppose government intervention. I believe companies that make bad decisions
should be allowed to go out of business. Under normal circumstances, I would
have followed this course. But these are not normal circumstances. The market is
not functioning properly." Italics mine, to highlight the favored lament of
reluctant central planners everywhere.

After the collapse of communism and the attendant discrediting of Marxian
economic models, the industrialized world more or less settled on democratic
capitalism as the best available option for countries to grow and prosper (see
"The Libertarian Moment," page 62). Old Europe slashed government involvement in
industry, New Europe rode mass privatization to massive growth, East Asian
countries went from emergingmarket "tigers" to full-fledged market economies,
and China used markets to yank hundreds of millions up from poverty. One could
perhaps be forgiven for thinking the 20th century's great economic argument had
been settled.

when a Republican presidential nominee unleashes retrograde attacks against
the "casino culture" of Wall Street "greed," and when a Democratic Congress
holds nearly daily hearings suggesting any number of "windfall profits" taxes
and forced reductions in private-sector CEO pay, that sound you hear is
a fragile consensus shattering and a warning bell clanging in the
night.

It amazes me that a free society with historically strong economic growth not only allows less freedom and has contempt for financial success, but strongly supports policies that try to impose limits on both.

The departure from the founding tenets of our country is eerily similar to examples throughout history, and especially the story of samuel:

In 1 Samuel 8
The people talking to Samuel:
5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

In other words: the constitution is old and out dated, we need to follow the example of Europe and the rest of the world.

7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

Religion should have no part in this country, because it only breeds hate and discrimination, government is the only institution that can or should help the poor.

20 That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

We don't want any responsibilities, we don't want to have to worry about trivial things like health care, retirement savings, national security. Lets just give it all to the government and they can balance the check book and give us an allowance, after all they know what's best.

More about European style of government here and here.