Repost- Thoughts on Economic Freedom

***This post originally ran last Friday***

----------------------------------------------------------
Hi guys, I'm here just coalescing some thoughts and observations. Ace had complained recently that politicians don't seem to have much of a tongue for conservative philosophy (also known as basic economic facts) anymore.

I live in Connecticut, where the Mighty Corrupt Idiot Governor Dannel P. M' Uuhhhloy is busy cooking the books and turning my beautiful state into a debtor's prison. So some things have been on my mind.

We look around us and our hearts sink at the tangle we're in. Our national debt will enslave future generations. The political, media, and corporate classes are in an intractable, incestuous conspiracy against the People. Top officers of government are selling American sovereignty and security out from underneath the citizenry, placing us all in risk. Washington D.C. is the lap of wealth and comfort, while everywhere else people are scraping by, underemployed or unemployed.

If we want to be able to explain to people why economic freedom is so great, we need to point out why the alternative is deficient. We don't have far to look. In our formerly great cities and states, we are doomed to watch again the same blight of poor governance that we had watched fail forty years ago. Why hasn't anyone learned this lesson, with the many times it has been self-taught?

These governments promise too much to too many. Many nepotic and corrupt arrangements bloom within and without the government apparatus. The politicians vow to make the rich pay for it all. Eventually as economic downturns and excessive public spending create budget shortfalls, the 'rich' must include the middle class.

The lackluster policing that frequently accompanies these regimes makes the area an unsafe place to raise children. Taxpayers can see that they will never be able to improve their lot in life or help their own kids if they are continually harassed and bled of their earnings. In most ways that count to ordinary people, money IS freedom.

So the taxpayers eventually leave for places that offer greater opportunity to control one's destiny. Where they can confidently own their own labor, live comfortably, and not be nickled-and-dimed down to their dental fillings. The municipal entities that house those new living quarters see an increase in overall prosperity and commerce, as taxpayers and workers who by definition add value to their surroundings, arrive in greater numbers.

The original localities however lose their tax base and must cut services. The end result is a condition of runaway poverty and neglect. I don't need to list the specific cities. We have all seen this movie before. Forty years ago, and today.

American economic freedom is indivisible from American freedom itself.

If your political ideology sees all of this, and your inclination is to preserve the status quo in D.C., and to make sure working people must be harnessed to the national plow and therefore cannot have economic freedom regardless of where they go inside the country, then you are anti-American and you must be defeated. Soundly. No matter what party you are a member of.

"Ours is a vision of limited government and unlimited opportunity, of growth and progress beyond what any can see today. A saying in colonial times suggested there are two ways to get to the top of an oak tree, where the view is much better. One is to climb; the other is to find an acorn and sit on it. [Laughter] Well, I didn’t come to Washington to sit on acorns. [Laughter] It’s time to roll up our sleeves and start climbing. . . ." -Ronald Reagan

That was then, Ron. Today we need a chainsaw.

American liberals have thoroughly erased the real story about American economic freedom from common working knowledge. It was real during the Reagan years, and it was glorious. Lower taxes and regulations meant that people were more free in an absolute sense. They took chances on their own skins, they won, they lost, and overall the economy roared. I don't wonder that some have worked so hard to discredit a history that many of us so recently lived. It has to have been terribly embarrassing to be continually proved wrong for eight years.

Today's economy in comparison is a weak and pallid victim of government predation. It doesn't have to be this way.

We keep hearing about the poor, as if being successful means someone else must be poor. But the Reagan years proved that was poppycock. The best way to help the poor is to grow the economy to such grand dimensions that economic opportunity is nearly impossible to avoid. And the truly needy poor who remain will be far better off. Giving to others requires excess wealth to exist, first, after all.

Questioning our cultural attitudes about the poor and the successful is a worthwhile subject for conservatives to explore. Here's one facet: modern liberals, when challenged about their hostility toward prosperous companies and wealthy people, will says things like, "Well, OF COURSE we like it when people achieve highly, but they also need to give something back (to the poor, we assume)." But in actual practice, they do not show any pleasure when people achieve. In fact it seems to piss them off. They will often say out loud that it is unfair that others should be wealthy, while poor people yet exist. And all of their efforts at helping people to do well are only for their favored cronies and pet causes. When it comes to how they treat everyone else who is participating in the economy at large, they are always cheering for the shakedown, but never encouraging the achievement. Actions speak louder than words. And the actions of liberals trend heavily toward punishing success as if it were a sin. We could further get into how they wrongheadedly celebrate victimhood and dependency as if they were virtues, but this article is already too long.

Very simply, if we want to live in a prosperous country, we all need to think like mature adults and start using the language of success and prosperity, with no reservations. We should not be afraid to talk truthfully about how great it is to do well, how important it is to be able to withstand adversity, and to congratulate those who do well and are financially resilient. We should attempt to cultivate success and propagate the message and means of prosperity among the younger people.

What more positive and loving message for your fellow man can there be, than to be an unabashed booster for his success and independence?

What kind of curmudgeonly national mood have we fallen into, if we despise those who have overflown poverty, and threaten to drag them down to Earth, in some deformed idea of justice?

I don't want to be that kind of person. I certainly don't want to associate with that kind of person; the sort of person who is unhappy when I do well. The sort of person who is happy when my success has been thwarted. To Hell with that guy, who needs him? And why would anyone vote for him?

Friends, you are my American brethren. Because I love my country, I love you too, and want you to be as prosperous and happy as you can possibly be. In fact it is imperative to our nation's survival that you and your families flourish. Anybody who views you growing your wealth as a bad thing, or who wants to put a heavy yoke on it, needs to go eat a big ol' poop.

posted by Laura. at 10:09 AM

| Access Comments