Big Goverment Polices are the Cause of an Underground Economy and the Black Market.

             It is strange how Hollywood paints a negative picture of the black market like in shows like MASH and other TV programs. They portray some Black Marketeers as ruthless opportunist exploiting the people for personal gain. I am not saying it does not exist. There are scoundrels who do take advantage of people in need for profit because the risk involved selling and buying in the black market. The war on drugs is a joke. Government intervention created the drug war were the price is high to sell and buy illegal substances. The drug cartels is just another word for black marketeers.

            When Prohibition was enacted with the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead act was a disaster because it banned to production, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Banning booze did not stop people from consuming beer and whiskey like the war on drugs did not stop heroine addicts getting their daily smack. Prohibition did the opposite of what it was intended for in the first place. It created the rise of Al Capone and the Speakeasies. The Kennedy family made money bootlegging during this era. The War on drugs and Prohibition were Government policies trying to regulate human behavior created an underground economy were criminal elements took the opportunity to gain from it regardless if there was blood in the streets as a result.. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

             Now we live in an era of big government or the nanny state interfering were it does not belong. That area is in commerce and contracts between two people. We have laws pending for banning home gardens, farmers markets and nutritional supplements. The state of Louisiana passed a law that second hand sales like at an estate sale or yard sale all have to be done electronically with no cash transactions allowed. Could we see a black market emerge or an underground economy that does business in precious metals or sells product that was once legal ,now the goverment has banned it? There are signs a black market in America is starting to emerge and an underground economy starting to come into replace the current Federal Reserve note when it has no worth.

          With the passage of Obamacare taking over the healthcare system. Can we see an underground healthcare system of alternative medicine?Can we see a network of Doctors administering  life saving treatments because the goverment system of rationing care placing a person on a waiting list that will kill them before they can see a Physician? Will we buy raw milk and non GMO vegetables in an underground economy or black market? Will this be an option of using the underground economy or black market as a means just to stay alive? If we see anymore goverment regulations and intervention into areas it has no constitutional authority to do. We can easily see an underground economy or black market rival the national economy of the money junkies toppling monopolies. If the black market or an underground economy offers a better service or product because it is free from the government's reach? People may find an alternative system more suitable.

           Here is one recent example. New York has the most highest taxes on a pack of cigarettes. When I was a truck driver.my route passing through New York city. I was stopped by NYPD in the Bronx on interstate 95. They confiscated my four carton of cigarettes I purchased in Mississippi. The Police said because of tax reasons because I had too many cartons cigarettes  They were afraid I will sell them to people in the big apple at a cheaper price cheating the city out of all those taxes on tobacco products. Recently,there have been people arrested buying cigarettes outside the state and selling them to people for a less expensive price because they were losing tax revenue. These high cigarette prices due to the taxes imposed by the state or the city created a black market or underground economy which in reality is a free market solution because people will go find a cheaper seller than be forced to pay city taxes on a pack of smokes. Boohoo to Mayor Bloomberg because people do not want to pay his high taxes on cigarettes.

            When goverment interferes with the free market economy making it against the law what was legal at one time is now illegal. When regulation and high taxes make it impossible to start up a Lemonade stand because compliance makes it next to impossible to comply with.  When push comes to shove people will barter or purchase for a service a person wants regardless of the goverment or not. When the dollar collapses , a roll of toilet paper will have more value then the Federal Reserve notes. New currencies will emerge were a new economy based on a value based currency will emerge having it roots in an underground economy.  Because of goverment intervention regulating the free market by centralized command and control. This drove some sectors of the economy underground just to survive.

             A black market or an underground economy can attract some ruthless people looking just to make a buck exploiting people with things they need that is a matter of life and death. But the there is an opposite reaction were this same black market and an underground economy does serve some good when the system makes it impossible to live. The black market as a solution were a service made illegal by the goverment due to anti competitive practices to favor one corporation over another. An underground economy and the black market is a natural response of the free market emerging in a different direction. If goverment just got out of the way and allowed people to conduct business and transactions in the open without any interference from a bureaucrat. There would be no need for a black market or an underground economy. Do you agree?