Opinion

Why is the left so opposed to Darwinian evolution in the market?

Seton Motley President, Less Government
Font Size:

Leftists, on the main, are profound believers and espousers of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution — when it comes to how the Earth and its flora and fauna have developed.

They also accuse we on the right of wholly dismissing it. (Well, I’m a buyer — so too is just about every conservative I know. But leftists never allow facts to get in the way of a good beating.)

Darwin’s theory of evolution is about wild, dynamic change — spontaneous, ceaseless disruption of the status quo. Every organism is constantly evolving to meet the demands of its environment. Which in turn changes the environment. Meanwhile, every other organism must constantly adjust to all of this.

And round and round it goes. Adapt, or die.

Evolution’s fundamental contributing tenet is natural selection.

Natural selection is the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment….

The term “natural selection” was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be compared with artificial selection, which is now called selective breeding.

All of this sounds an awful lot like a free market economy. Species are companies — the market, the environment.

Only the capitalism evolution timeline is infinitely compressed. It doesn’t take thousands of years for changes to occur — they happen instantaneously, constantly, incessantly.

And the price for natural selection changes for the worse are paid just as fast — a good idea today can kill you tomorrow. “Want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?”

Nowhere is this spontaneous disorder on greater display than the Internet-technology sector. It’s still a very nascent industry — so new ideas are constantly being developed and introduced. In the distributed Web, competition comes at you via myriad web strands — at multiple, acute angles.

It’s not just direct competition — where Facebook usurps MySpace. It’s new competitors wreaking havoc from heretofore unseen sniper spots.

Text messaging used to make cellular phone companies a ton of coin; free text apps have now strip-mined that revenue stream. And Vonage now lets you place calls via your Vonage account — on other companies’ broadband networks. That’ll cut down on your minutes used.

Sounds like evolution on speed and steroids. The left should love it — except they don’t. When it comes to the economy, they eschew the Darwinian decentralized disorder that has created our diverse, beautiful planet — and instead demand ossified, centralized planning.

The left loves Network Neutrality. A top-down government Internet uber-regulation that in multiple directions prohibits Natural Selection — and ultimately, a private sector Internet.

“At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.

Central planning doesn’t get more central or planned than that. And how is this anti-Darwinism applied?

“Consumer groups are outraged about a potential plan for ESPN to subsidize smartphone data usage, saying it would violate the principle of net neutrality,” a story at The Hill read recently.

Get that? Leftist “consumer groups” want the government to block an evolutionary next step — a private company making things cheaper for consumers. How is that in consumers’ interest?

If it works, all the better, for everyone. Natural selection will have others emulating them, and the downward price pressure will continue to expand. If it doesn’t, natural selection will make it go away.

But it’ll probably work. ESPN’s proposal is really just Darwin-esque copycatting of successes elsewhere. Ever heard of an 800 phone number — where a private company pays for your call to them? Or free shipping — where a private company pays to deliver you the goods you purchased from them?

Of course you have. The left, apparently, has not — or chooses to ignore this little slice of reality.

No amount of economic dynamism shakes their government-centric monomania.

What the Comcast-Netflix Deal Means to Net Neutrality

(Netflix) agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to Comcast to ensure that its streaming of online movies and TV shows runs smoothly.

It’s a stunning about-face, according to critics, who fear the deal imperils the concept of network neutrality….

Another evolutionary advance – better delivery of a high-broadband-demand service, at no additional consumer cost. And the Left objects.

If you asked Netflix users which they preferred — faster, cheaper movie streaming or Net Neutrality, guess which one they’ll choose?

Will (the) Comcast and Time Warner Cable (Merger) Sink Net Neutrality?

One can only hope.

If we are to continue to evolve, we must allow the left’s dinosaur regulatory approach to — well, go the way of the dinosaur.

Stop propping up Jurassic government — and let the mammalian free market flourish.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel