Freedom and Free Markets
Freedom and Free Markets
Wealth is not how much money you have but how many goods and services you can buy with your money. If the supply of goods and services increases relative to the supply of money, then that same amount of money could be exchanged for more wealth. Thus, with the same amount money, one has become wealthier. That is how wealth is made common.
Poverty is the natural state of mankind. In the beginning of recorded history everyone was poor, including the rich, relative to today. This is because they did not have as many tools (capital) to produce as many good and services to trade for what others had produced, as compared to today.
In order to increase production, one must invent/use capital (tools) to make work easier. Capital either saves time doing work or increases the quality and quantity of goods and services.
Historically, (Classical) Liberalism, the philosophy that you can do whatever you want with your own property starting with the idea that you own yourself, resulted in capital production for trade in free markets and thus so-called Capitalism.
The Declaration of Independence, written in English colonies the same year that the Industrial Revolution began in England (1776), states it as,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted.”
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was influenced by the English political theorist John Locke’s Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690). In it he wrote,
“But though this is a state of liberty, it isn’t a state of licence [sic] in which there are no constraints on how people behave… The state of nature is governed by a law that creates obligations for everyone. And reason, which is that law, teaches anyone who takes the trouble to consult it, that because we are all equal and independent, no-one ought to harm anyone else in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”[1]
Property rights were so important to the founding generation of the USA, that the federal Constitution they instituted was amended in 1791 to include a Bill of Rights, amongst which the 5th Amendment obliges law enforcement officers and judges,
“No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Following the American Civil War and later the end of slavery, the 14th Amendment (1868) was added to ensure the protection of property rights for newly freed slaves. It states,
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
However, the American Revolution did not end with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, nor with the Bill of Rights in 1791, nor with the outlawing of slavery with the 13th Amendment in December 1865. The liberty, free markets, and the resulting wealth have been eroded by progressive Socialism via the application of both the 13th Amendment and redistributive taxes through general ignorance of the 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments.
The 13th Amendment states,
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The 9th Amendment reads,
“The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Today the Federal and State governments use the 13th Amendment to punish people for so-called crimes in violation of the rights and liberties protected by the 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. For example, drug use is illegally prohibited with the same result as when alcohol was legally prohibited with the 18th Amendment: organized violent crime and the high taxes to afford both imprisoning (enslaving)[2] people and the police state to enforce the unConstitutional laws.
According to economist Milton Friedman,
“See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true… it's very hard for a small person to go into the drug importing business because our interdiction efforts essentially make it enormously costly. So, the only people who can survive in that business are these large Medellin cartel kind of people who have enough money so they can have fleets of airplanes, so they can have sophisticated methods, and so on.“[3]
In order for wealth to be made common, free markets must exist. In order to return to free markets, freedom must be secured. In order for freedom to be secured, the Constitution must be the supreme law of the land again.
The world speaks English for a reason.
“It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” -Sam Adams, Founding Father.
[1]http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/locke1689a.pdf
[3] 1991 interview on "America's Drug Forum” http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/misc/friedm1.htm