always the interest<\/a> of the dealers,\u201d Smith wrote. Narrowing competition, he continued, \u201cmust always be against\u201d the public interest.<\/p>\nDealers. Now there\u2019s a word. Everybody understands the market for drugs: A cartel doesn\u2019t want a free market. It wants to control the product, territory and price. But when people become powerful enough to control a market, influence its rules and shape the government enforcing them, you don\u2019t have much of a free market anymore.<\/p>\n
Now, look at property insurance. Homeowners watched premiums soar while Tallahassee rewrote insurance rules. Some reforms were necessary. But insurance interests also spend substantial money helping elect the people writing those rules.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean anybody bought a vote. But when the regulated are helping to choose the regulators, we ought to pay attention.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Amendment 3, Tallahassee\u2019s proposed property-tax \u201creform.\u201d<\/p>\n
I call it a shell game.<\/p>\n
Homeowners need relief. But Amendment 3 would eliminate tens of billions of dollars in local-government revenue over five years. Miami-Dade estimates about $386 million could disappear from its general fund in the first year alone.<\/p>\n
Police and fire rescue still have to show up. Roads, parks and libraries still cost money. Renters don\u2019t get the expanded homestead exemption but can still pay through fees, reduced services or higher rents.<\/p>\n
The bill doesn\u2019t disappear. We\u2019ll just be arguing about who gets handed the check.<\/p>\n
Even Gov. Ron DeSantis, who pushed property-tax cuts, has been reluctant to lead the Amendment 3 campaign. He says he\u2019ll vote for it but says the Legislature\u2019s version \u201cwasn\u2019t my proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the governor doesn\u2019t want his name on the bumper sticker for the version voters actually got.<\/p>\n
Amendment 3 isn\u2019t reform. It\u2019s Tallahassee transferring the problem to Miami-Dade and calling it relief.<\/p>\n
You cannot claim to believe in free markets while allowing the biggest players to control the game, the referees and the rulebook.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not Adam Smith winning. That\u2019s the people Adam Smith warned us about winning.<\/p>\n
Look at Democrats Zohran Mamdani in New York and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Different approaches, but neither seems afraid of big business or apologizes for challenging concentrated economic power.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the donkey needs to buck the trend. Democrats can be pro-entrepreneur, pro-small business and pro-competition while standing up to corporate bullies and political favoritism.<\/p>\n
Both parties have indulged corporate power. From where I sit, the elephant seems considerably more comfortable with it than the donkey.<\/p>\n
There is a difference between being pro-business and being pro-market. Government shouldn\u2019t pick the winners. It should make sure there is actually a game.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s worth remembering during America\u2019s 250th anniversary. \u201cThe Wealth of Nations\u201d turns 250, too.<\/p>\n
I became a social work major and moved on from Adam Smith to W.E.B. Du Bois. Turns out I never really left economics. I just became more interested in what economic systems do to people.<\/p>\n
Christopher M. Norwood is a member of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A view of the Florida Capitol on Jan. 12, 2026, in Tallahassee. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-396853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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