By: Thomas Lee Abshier

 The Free Market Economy self-organizes a prosperous mutually beneficial system by simply allowing the individuals comprising the society (people and corporations) to maximize their pleasure and minimize their pain. Allowing individual self-determination has proven the most successful model to create a prosperous economy.
 The Republican philosophy of government has embraced allowing the market to regulate itself.
 Adam Smith’s invisible hand has proven to produce the most prosperous nation on earth
 The reason for this exceptional success is probably multifactorial
 A market which allows personal effort to produce personal reward results in a sense of control, power, and security.
 The human heart has unlimited wants. Some feel that drive more than others. Those driven by the desire for more wealth can engage and satisfy that desire in the market.
 The Free Market may be self-correcting in the long term, but it does not inherently fine-tune itself. But, if the market is properly directed toward ecologically sound and progressive technology then the market needs little regulation.
 However, if unregulated by righteous law, the market may engage in excessive self-interest.
 The pure economic competition and profit motivation can result in industry/business engaging in practices with damaging cumulative effects.
 Such practices include pollution, monopoly, and marketing low quality or dangerous products.
 These behaviors are the economic/social equivalents of disease states.
 Proper regulation of economic business practices by government levels the playing field so that unfair advantage is not given to a corporation willing to take the road of deception and collateral damage (e.g. environmental).
 The requirement to deliver short-term profitability may limit the ability of the corporate world to address long-term threats such as global warming and depletion of resources. Thus, governmental oversight, regulation, and enforcement may be required to curb the appetites and conduct of the corporate world.
 Corporations may not switch to a new technology (that makes their installed production base obsolete) while still heavily invested in a current technology. They may desire to continue business as usual, capitalizing on their market share. They may wish to fully depreciate their investment in an established technology and/or natural resources before transitioning into a new technology. Profitability is far more certain while engaging in an established market rather than attempting to penetrate and survive in a new, less proven market.
 In other words, without the wisdom and far-reaching vision of an organizing directive, an economically protected social system can delay implementing new technologies. Therefore, I believe it is necessary for the government to take the lead in directing resources and effort into developing inexpensive, reliable, and plentiful utilization of solar, wind, biomass energy generation systems; hydrogen-fuel cell transportation systems; and solar/geothermal/electrical desalinization technology.
 When the technology has matured sufficiently, industry may begin to implement these technologies. Tax incentives may be necessary to nourish and encourage these fledgling industries.
 Full implementation of this technology may take many years due to the scope of the infrastructure installation required to produce a fully functioning hydrogen-fuel cell-based transportation sector.