Free Enterprise And Self Expression Go Hand In Hand.

"A virtue of the free enterprise system is that it offers every individual the greater opportunity for self expression."

Lawrence Fertig (1898 - 1986)

Notice the key word there - greater.

There is greater opportunity for self expression in a free enterprise condition.  And he says that is "a" virtue, meaning one of many, "a virtue of the free enterprise system."

If history's best and brightest have shined in free enterprise economies, it is because there they were left free to express themselves.

If history's best and brightest inventions and innovations shined in free enterprise economies, it is because there they were left free to be expressed!

The idea in a free enterprise system is to put yourself out there.  Take a risk, find a way to introduce an idea (in the form of good or service) and express it!  See if others have the same reaction to receiving it as the purveyor of the idea thought they would! 

Sometimes it wins and sometimes it loses.  But at least, AT LEAST, in a free enterprise economy there is the environment in which to try.  If a bureaucrat or agency decides what will be offered, there is little room for invention or innovation.  There is a "lesser opportunity for self expression," to paraphrase Fertig's quote above.

History has shown us consistently that this is the case.

In fact, in a command and control economy, and name your label - socialist, communist, fascist, and the innocuous "managed" - self expression cannot be tolerated.  The gig is that everyone be the same!  Well, except for a certain few.  The certain few are the elect, the chosen, the put above and the wondrously smart.  To describe this condition, one author conceived of an Animal Farm  and barnyard and called those self chosen the "two legs." 

At first the Two Legs were really four legs, like the other animals, and criticized the humans controlling them - the humans who walked on two legs.  But then some of the four legs who decided that they were indeed elect, chose, put above and wondrously smart needed to find a way to set themselves apart and they did so by walking on two legs. 

AT THAT POINT SOME ANIMALS PORTRAYING THE 'TWO-LEG' CONCEPT 

WERE SAID TO BE GOOD.

And walking on four legs was said to be not so good.  At least not any longer.  And those four legs all needed to conform, and be the same.  There was to be no self expression among them.

There COULD be no self expression among them!  That was not a part of the formula!  They were not free.  And self expression was not a virtue the four legs enjoyed.  Their ability to express themselves, in the form of songs and chants, was controlled by the Two Legs.  Everything was Two Leg Approved!

The brilliance of the simple quote at the start is in its simplicity.  Virtues abound when there is free enterprise.  Such a concept, and therefore the virtues, extends far beyond the economic aspects.  It extends into the very fabric of the society.  Everyone is made free and can enjoy freedom's gift.

Free enterprise and self expression go hand in hand.

Period.