Introduction

      The flag of the United States of America has alway represented free enterprise. It represents freedom. Our representative democracy was designed to protect the rights of individuals without thwarting their ambition, self reliance and inventiveness. The founders were very definitely concerned about the affect of government on enterprise. When individuals are free, their works are nothing short of amazing - especially when compared to the economic results obtained from centralized control. This was well known then, and in some circles, it is still fully understood.

      Of all the countries of the world, the United States has the greatest number of citizens who are millionaires and billionaires. This means that American citizens can afford to employ American citizens. This is a profound achievement yielding a level of economic prosperity that cannot be approximated by government management of the economy. It is an economic system that is based on, and relies on, individual freedom.

      In a free market, it is up to the buyer and the seller to agree on a price. Whether to buy again is up to the buyer. Whether to sell again is up to the seller. Any government action or regulation that tends to bias these decisions tends to make markets less free and also tends to make prices more artificial. Prices, thereby, become less informative for the purpose of assessing risk and potential benefit.

      Free Enterprise is a long standing feature of American economics. It presumes the existence of private property and, just as importantly, it strives to preserve its potential for individuals to excel, despite the economic circumstances of their birth. A true free enterprise economy (one that is not merely capitalist) permits its citizens to earn wealth without having been born to it.

      It won't take you more than a few minutes to learn through search engines that socialists in America often express contempt for the American flag. They see the U. S. flag as representing certain outcomes that they consider bad, wrong or even evil. I blame much of the perceived shortcomings of our economic system on business criminality, legislative corruption, crony capitalism, monopolistic collusion and the misperception on the part of voters as to what free enterprise really is. It is the individual's freedom to make private economic choices. Let's take a look at the issues:



Income Disparity

      Imagine that the adults in half of the families in each U.S. city and town were trillionaires while the other families typically lived on incomes that could not afford them a home of their own or a recent-year car. Imagine also that nobody could be legally obliged to pay taxes if their yearly income was above the median income. In that society, what would happen if a person of modest means got a good idea that could solve an important problem? Would upward mobility be greater or less than it is today? Of course, it would be greater.

      Consider another hypothetical state of the economy: There are just as many people in each income bracket as there are today, but the wealthiest one percent decide to pool their efforts to gather materials from the asteroid belt. The wealth of the richest one percent is multiplied by hundreds. Income disparity is worse than ever. The rich are making windfall profits on each of the first 102 kind of atoms listed in the periodic table. Would the cost of materials to small businesses and consumers go down? Would new businesses get started? Would employment go up? Would average wealth go up? Would the wealth of the poor go up? Of course, the answer is "yes" to all of these questions.

      Income disparity in itself does not hurt anybody. How can more productivity hurt poor people? It can't. Abject poverty and homelessness hurt people. Middle-class socialism hurts everybody. Corruption and criminality hurts everybody. Buying votes hurts everybody. Rich companies scheming to illegally keep newcomers out of an industry hurts everybody. Not knowing right from wrong hurts everybody.

      Worrying about how much somebody else owns is a waste of time. We are better off thinking about how we ourselves can be more productive. Envy is not a good thing. Some even say it's a sin.

      Envy is generated by hopelessness. Envy is dispelled whenever wealth can be obtained without luck or miracles. Dramatic improvements in upward mobility can be realized by understanding free enterprise and allowing free markets to exist.

      There is a very real distinction between free enterprise and capitalism which is germane to a perception that socialists rightly have regarding income disparity. Capitalism is the use of wealth for economically productive purposes. Where it is not corrupt, and where it does not unfairly constrain new competition, it is exceedingly valuable to the economic well being of the people of the United States. It is generally true that capital is most effectively managed by people who have earned it, by people who know how to earn it, and by people who put their own money at risk to produce value; however, our government has paid too little attention to unfair business practices and to government policies that favor very large businesses. Both of these problems stifle the smallest of businesses. This only serves to convince people that the poor will always be poor. Any economic system that prevents individuals from climbing economic ladders or reduces their chances of doing so and is unjust. The upward mobility inherent in free enterprise must be unrestrained by misguided policies on the part of government, or by self-serving contrivances and bribery on the part of those who have already attained great wealth.



Poverty

      When people become disabled, or lose all of their wealth at the end of their working years, or reach the age of retirement without having succeeded in providing for their own continued survival, their income must be supplemented. If other charities fall short, the government must step in. The government is the charity of last resort because it is charged with defending the life and liberty of its citizens. In these cases, a tolerable and decent standard of living for the recipients of such supplemental income needs to be clearly quantified. The lowest standard of living that citizens should be asked to endure must not involve homelessness or hunger. So why does it happen?

      Representatives in Congress are continually spending tax dollars in efforts to bribe voters - and not just the poor voters. These representatives want to get reelected. Voters need to be keenly aware if this.

      The American work force could well afford to maintain a safety net for the disabled and the elderly if tax payers enjoyed an otherwise free-market economic system, unencumbered by corruption and the middle-class socialism. The American people need to realize that the socialists who point to the homeless as an evil of free enterprise are being aided and abetted by the socialists in Congress. They are not about to cooperate in the eradication of homelessness.



Boom and Bust

      Is it not suspicious that thousands of cities decide to have a downturn in economic prosperity all at the same time? This could not happen by chance. There surely must be a common factor affecting the finances of people throughout the country. There is. It's government's control of the money supply. Centralized planning and corrupt influences on the planners is the culprit. This is precisely the kind of centralized control most cherished by socialists. The end of the business cycle will come with the end of centralized control over the value of money - not when the entire economy is centrally controlled.



Fixed Total Wealth

      Often, children are unimpressed with their own power. After all, they start out with very little of it. Desirable things may often seem to be created only by magic and only in their dreams. Without giving the matter much thought, one can grow up assuming (quite unconsciously) that wealth creation is an oxymoron. The bully get things by depriving others of their property rights. People who want a lot are greedy. People who made themselves more wealthy than they once were must have made somebody else less wealthy. I have had many conversation with socialists who cannot seem to rid themselves of the feeling that whatever is owned by the rich cannot be owned by the poor. These are childish beliefs.

      Wealth is created by any work that develops a less labor-intensive way to produce something that is needed. If you spend every waking hour gathering food in amounts that barely keep you alive, you might not consider yourself very prosperous. If you work one hour a day to produce all the food and clothing that any city would need, you would, in fact, be rich. If you write a program or design a tool that makes the users of your program or tool more effective in their efforts to produce the things that they need, you thereby add wealth to the society.



Greed and Charity

      Nothing about free enterprise is antithetical to cooperation, generosity, or to assisting the disadvantaged. The communal building of dwellings and many other sorts of cooperative and humanitarian activities have been characteristic of free enterprise economies throughout the centuries. During each of 2007 and 2008, Americans gave over $300 Billion to charity. This was at least six times the Russian Defense Budget.

      Productive ambition becomes greed when, in order to increase ones wealth, one becomes willing to break the law, encourage corruption, or engage in unfair business practices. Characterizing the American business culture as greedy and insensitive just doesn't square with the facts. Here are a couple of quotes from U. S. presidents:

      "Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse."
George Washington

      "America is great because America is good - and if America ever ceases to be good - America will cease to be great."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

      Many similar remarks have been made by other presidents. Charity is not forced by the government. It is personal generosity.



Dependency and Awe

      When the grand, sublime and awesomely powerful government which leads the world and is the embodiment of truth and justice says we are going into space, tears of joy roll down many faces. Think about that. Something immensely bigger than any mere individual will collect tax dollars and manage all of outer space forever. No entrepreneurs are invited to manage, set the agenda or invent - except through government contracts. This is something that preys upon our widespread dependent personality disorder. This is not what the founders had in mind; but without this ingredient, socialism would be far less appealing. If you have been cajoled into letting some bigger thing do the heavy lifting for you, it becomes progressively more difficult to love a flag that arouses whatever is left of your self reliance.



Contact

      Please feel free to write to me directly. My email address is jim@futurebeacon.com. You can also go to my contact page to get my full contact information.