The following is a letter to the editor that I submitted to the Richmond Times Dispatch on May 23, 2001 and was published June 2. Editor, Times Dispatch: Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle vehemently opposed President Bush’s tax cut plan on the basis that the “wealthiest one percent” should sacrifice their earnings for more social programs and for those who earn less. Daschle recently criticized the President’s energy policy because it lacks sufficient steps for conservation and takes a laissez faire attitude toward rising energy prices. Daschle has finally proven himself to be an enemy of capitalism and a promoter of self-sacrifice. Conservation means sacrificing Man’s needs in order to “share” resources with the environment. It rejects the principles upon which our country was founded – the pursuit of a better future by freeing man’s mind to develop new means of production and to profit from this pursuit. We are obligated to use all of the resources available to us. But how can we create new means of production or improve the old ones if supply is stymied by government regulations and calls for conservation? Daschle has called for price caps on energy, and he continues to support the consistently unprovable accusations of corporate price gouging. As energy prices rise in an unrestricted market, consumers will use less and producers will have incentive (profit) to produce more, or innovators will develop newer, cheaper, and more efficient means of production. The honest pursuit of profit is not only moral but it is also the base upon which this great nation was founded. Not upon the vice of self-sacrifice. -Bob Murphy. Richmond