Free Enterprise Is Not A Scam Or A Big Can Of Spam

Think about a can of SPAM!

Words mean things.
Concepts mean things.
Ideas mean things.

People try to spin word meanings, or make others think words mean things that they don't, but the words, concepts and ideas still mean what they mean.

And meanings change over time!  It isn't spin - that's what language does!  When I was a young Boy Scout I liked spam!  It was a great, campfire breakfast food.  Now that I am an old curmudgeon I don't like spam so much.  The meaning has changed.

Now an application, or "app," isn't what I do to apply for something necessarily.  It can also mean that I am searching for something that conveys another something to me electronically.  And now "swiping" something, like my credit card, is an action business demands we do.

But, some definitions that have always been still are.

In my college economics dictionary, which I still have, but don't always refer to, there are definitions that apply today.  For example,

FREE ENTERPRISE - an economic and political doctrine holding that a capitalist economy can regulate itself in a freely competitive market through the relationship of supply and demand with a minimum of governmental intervention and regulation.

SOCIALISM - a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.  (FYI - Marx said that socialism was simply a temporary middle step between the demise of capitalism and the implementation of communism.)

Even in the definitions spin is at play!  Notice free enterprise is "economic and political doctrine," and socialism is "social organization."  

Yes, free enterprise is something that is adhered to or believed, like a religious doctrine, and socialism is a benign attempt to organize a community!

And then come the organizers trying to wrest the free-market aspect from the system and impose what they "feel" should be regulated in a free-market aspect system.  And all the while still saying they advocate and promote the free market!  

So, to sum it up, AND ALL THIS DESPITE PROFOUND HISTORY TO THE OPPOSITE, the organizers want all to know that the free market cannot regulate itself, free enterprise practitioners certainly cannot regulate the "community" ownership "as a whole," and they, (the ubiquitous THEY) are in charge of bringing bigger and better and fairer and more wonderful to us all.  There is never any force here, or ever "the big lie."

Let me paraphrase, from the organizers we hear - if you like your free enterprise you can keep it, everything we have ever wanted will be brought to each one of us more abundantly and more cheaply, and we have to pass humongous laws implementing socialism  so we can find out what's in the laws because, after all, you didn't and can't build that.

Oh, and we must love the former FOUR LEGS  in the barnyard who have appointed themselves the new TWO LEGS  in the barnyard, so they (the ubiquitous THEY) can direct the rest of us incompetent FOUR LEGS  in the barnyard, who are expected to follow, obey, believe, and chant the mantras of the newly self-appointed TWO LEGS  in the barnyard.  THEY are the smartest, ever.

What a diaper load!  What a scam and a big can of spam!

Free enterprise is not a scam or a big can of spam.

Free Enterprise Is The Natural Course And Cannot Be Resisted

“We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.”

Jules Verne (1828-1905)

If we humans are about nothing less we are about defining our behavior.

We love to create rules and laws.  We love to create standards and practices.  We love to have blueprints, and designs, and boundaries, and on and on and on.

And why not?  Things often work much better when organized and when expectations are set.

But sometimes human laws overwhelm us.  They can impose difficulties and create minutia and complexities that are hard to understand and hard to keep up with.  And then we can be punished for not understanding or knowing the laws!

But we trudge on.  As Jules Verne says, we "brave human laws."  

Some of what the Founding Fathers suggested, and tried to define and defend with a document, was that there are certain natural laws that tyrants for thousands of years tried to ignore.  And they imposed themselves, or their system and methods, on their populace, creating subjects, slaves and set ups that were (or are) contrary to natural law.

The American Revolution was not a war.  It was the statement that we were setting up a society as far from that previous, expected tyranny as possible.  The American Revolution set up systems conforming to natural laws of freedom, where such laws provided guardrails and were yet freeing at the same time.  They set up expectations where the citizenry could act more freely, without being acted upon.  They set up a legal system where laws were not based on whims but ethics and are moral codes.  They set up an economic environment that promoted free enterprise and voluntary exchange.  And they set up a government that is representative, defined by the rule of law, and which decentralized power equally among different branches.  They set up a gubment that was LESS about force and coercion and MORE about an endowment of natural laws and rights.

Hence, the American Revolution was more about individual rights and limitations on gubment, a gubment that did not force but where individuals could grow and become and multiply their talents.  The American Revolution was an idea that was exceptionally different than anything that had previously been experienced by mankind.

AND IT HAS WORKED.

This has been referred to as American Exceptionalism.  And, according to Jules Verne's thinking, such laws cannot be ignored.  They cannot be trifled with.  They cannot be overcome without an eventual revolution.  We humans cannot resist them.  Therefore ...

Free enterprise is the natural course of the human experience 

and cannot be resisted.

Free Enterprise Extends The Sphere Of Individual Freedom

“Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

Asked to come to America by the French Monarchy to study prisons and look at the change from an aristocratic order to a democratic one, he stayed less than two years.  He did actually visit a couple of prisons, but spent most of his time traveling around the country observing and visiting with the populace.

De Tocqueville was a strong supporter of liberty and freedom.  He published his thoughts on Democracy in America  in two books.  (They can be downloaded for free to your mobile library!)

He basically found American politics and American democracy to be a balance between the individual and the community.  Reading his books one sees his distaste for politicians.

De Tocqueville often compared society in America with socialism (flaring more popular in Europe in his day) and aristocratic rule. Hence the quote above.

He had a lot to say about the different types of "equality" sought in democratic and socialist societies.  Obviously de Tocqueville would have gotten along with Churchill who said that socialism seeks equality in misery.

And so, the taffy pull continues.  

So, to play with the de Tocqueville thoughts quoted herein, which do you want?

• Freedom or restriction?
• Individual value or being a number in a cog?
• Equality in liberty or restraint and servitude?
• Equality in light or darkness?

Those who pretend to want "equality" always have a personal agenda.  They aren't seeking equality as much as to recreate it.  To put forth their views they use (AND CHANGE THE MEANING OF) big-thinking words like discrimination, diversity, life, medicinal, and rights to make their narrow cases.  And while doing so pretend that everyone agrees with them!  And if you don't agree with them, well, you, YOU, are in a miniscule and detestable minority!  You, YOU, are on the "wrong side of history!"  You, YOU, should be shunned and silenced.

How many times lately have you heard that your traditional values are on the "wrong side of history?"

Explain what in the world "wrong side of history" means!  I know, it's big thinking, but vacuous.  They can't explain it either, but that doesn't matter.  They are always "assessing and reassessing."  Another big-thinking phrase, but vacuous.  And slogans!  Don't forget the slogans!  Oh, and rhyming chants.  We need more chants!  With all the braying and bleating, honking and oinking, it's a regular animal farmyard out there!

Free enterprise extends the sphere of individual freedom.