Two stories in last Thursday’s edition of the paper touched on the nexus where consumers, business owners and the free market intersect. One of those stories was about the Tooele Army Depot’s attempt to put forward a more dynamic face to the private sector as it looks to grow the engineering segment of its business. The other was about what type of business mix local residents would like to see in Tooele Valley — with fast-food outlets generally getting the thumbs down and fine dining restaurants getting the thumbs up, among several other opinions.

In the end, however, the virtue of our capitalist system is that whether the depot is a hit with the private sector or more fine-dining restaurants come to Tooele won’t be decided by individuals. Those decisions will be made by markets. If the depot can’t sell its services on a competitive basis, it won’t succeed in the private sector. Likewise, if widespread demand for fine dining isn’t here, no amount of pleading by local residents will lure those types of restaurants into the valley.

Within that context, the seemingly arbitrary and untransparent decision to close Salt Lake Community College’s two physical locations in Tooele Valley strikes us as unnecessary meddling in a process that would be better left to markets. Apparently David Buhler, interim commissioner for the Utah System of Higher Education, met with a handful of local leaders during a closed-door meeting in June, and together they decided to effectively close SLCC. That’s not the way a decision affecting hundreds of students should be made.

Our question is: if, based on student enrollment, SLCC thought its local programs were viable, why would higher ed higher-ups step in to effect, in the words of Buhler, “a transition in what institutions will be responsible for higher education in Tooele county?” Wouldn’t it be better to allow existing higher ed providers to compete against each other in order to create a product mix that’s right for our market?

Earlier this year, we editorialized in favor of a new charter school planning to set up in Tooele County on the grounds that more educational choices create diversity and competition, which are two of the guiding principals of our nation. Those principals should be honored in higher education as well. Educational institutions competing with each other is something government should interfere in as little as possible. In fact, it’s an essential part of our free-market system.