I'm dedicating today's posting to a blog I just came across called " The Freedom Project " ( http://freemktprojectcom/ ). The blog is published by one Pat Slattery who states that the purpose of The Freedom Project is "to promote free market capitalism as the economic system that is best able to produce wealth....for the people of the United States of America and the world." There is something about the simplicity of this statement of purpose that I find appealing. Also, the title is perfect in my opinion because " Freedom " only truly exist in a free market economy; every degree of socialism is that much less freedom and that much more government control over our lives.
So, I looked forward to reading some of Pat's most recent postings and I wasn't disappointed. This past Sunday, 22 August, the post was titled "Blaming Business is Absurd". The issue raised in a nut shell is: Why is business so vilified in this country especially by the elite in government and the news media but also by the public in general? This is not only an excellent question it is an important question that too often is not addressed by mainstreams conservative thinkers and writers. Free market capitalism can not hope to win the battle against the ever growing socialist tendencies in this country unless this question is honestly answered and a workable plan is put in motion to overcome this erroneous perception.
I certainly am not going to pretend that I have the answers; but maybe I can get the dialog ball rolling with a few opinions:
1.) We free marketers must accept that we have, both historically and currently, a number of unscrupulous actors that continually give capitalism a bad name. The actions of Goldman Sachs and friends in manipulating and defrauding their investors and the Erron scandal are just two of the more recent scandals. But it's not just big business its also local businessmen when the they get caught in a corruption scandal. These events make big news and it is understandable that the public begins to think that all business as corrupt. Maybe the the more important voices of free enterprise need to be much more vocal in condemning these criminal activities.
2.) The media are by in large biased. But that doesn't mean they won't accept a letter to the editor for publication. These letters should be less about attacking government policy and more about the virtues of free enterprise and smaller government. It will take some imagination to formulate our message in a manner that doesn't come across so typically cold and heartless. Not easy I know.
3.) Our children graduate from high school and for that matter from college with very little understanding of the importance of free enterprise. Well, I suppose that's an understatement, right? We're not likely to have much luck in getting the public schools to alter their curriculum but maybe there is another approach. What if retired businessmen and women offered to volunteer their time to teach a course on the role of business in the community and in the country that the students could take for extra credit.
4.) The liberals, the left, the socialist or what ever it is that we're calling them these days, are represented in government by the Democratic Party and, therefore, have a powerful voice in the direction of policy in this country. On the other hand, we the right, the conservatives, the free marketers, or what ever we are calling ourselves these days, have no representation in government and, therefore, no voice in policy making. The Republican Party use to be our voice but that has changed over the years and I suppose that we have mainly ourselves to blame for that. I think that we must become much more politically active from grass roots on up. Possibly we need to take some lessons from the Tea Party movement, but hopefully much more focused. Forming a third party might have some merit; not so much in the idea that we can elect enough candidates to have any real impact, but in the leverage we might gain in getting the Republicans to put up more candidates that truly believe in free enterprise and free market capitalism.
Well, that's enough for today.
Sense or nonsense?
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