Freeman December Banner   America's Other Democracy  Every Day
Is Election Day in the Marketplace   Dr. Peterson, Heritage
Foundation adjunct scholar, is Distinguished Lundy Professor
Emeritus of Business Philosophy at Campbell University in North
Carolina, and author of a forthcoming book, Peterson’s Law: Why
Things Go Wrong, from which this article is drawn.  Leonard Read
used to tell the story of a shopper in a crowded department
store during the Christmas rush. After buying some gifts, she
forges her way to the gift-wrap counter, telling the clerk how
jammed the store is. “Yes,” says the clerk, “it’s our best day
so far.” Then the shopper walks over to the post office to mail
her gift packages, again remarking to a clerk on the crowd in
the post office. “Yes,” muttered the clerk, “it’s our worst day
so far.”  The Read story ties into the partisan fracas over the
federal budget, a fracas between those who would “reinvent”
government and those who would “disinvent” it. Initially, the
disinventors would elim