Capitalism
Click Ben for Personal Finance
Updated 3-19-07
Money, Business, & Property
"America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to 'the common good,' but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance -- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way." [Ayn Rand]
It is no coincidence that the free societies of the world are Capitalist, that is to say that they value private enterprise and private property. Further - have you noticed this? - all socialist and communist countries are oppressive. That's because there can be no freedom without Money, Business, and Property. They are not only the keys to, but the very engines of, freedom.
The reason for this is relatively simple with a little examination. I will elaborate more when I get to it, but for now let me just point out that:
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"Money is society's way of expressing appreciation for one's accomplishments, and for the livelihood that one's work provides to others. The only other incentive for such contributions is force." Don't take my word for it...ask anyone you can find who has lived under socialism.
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Government produces nothing on its own. It only has what it takes (via taxes) from you and other productive people. Thus, beware when a government justifies this practice of legalized looting with a compassionate sounding appeal to "the common good."
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Don't hear me wrong, we need taxation. But we only need it to provide a limited number number of things...like fire and police protection; a military for national defense, etc. Much more than this and you start to see a welfare state develop, as people look more and more to government programs - rather than their own initiative - to provide for them. This is the beginning of the classic decline cycle that leads back to oppression.
Below is one of my favorites.
It's from
Alexander Tyler, and no, he wasn't writing about the United States. This quote
is well over one hundred years old. Tyler was writing about the fall of the
Athenian Republic.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only
exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the
public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the
candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the
result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed
by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has
been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following
sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great
courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance
to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
For more, see Socialism and Communism
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