FREEDOM AND CAPITALISM
By
Lawrence Wilson, MD
© April 2008, The Center For Development
THE IMPORTANCE OF FREEDOM
This is a short philosophical article
about the virtues of freedom. The
most important quality needed for development of the human being, or for that
matter any being, is the ability to think and make decisions on oneÕs own. This is a basic principle of this
article. If you donÕt agree, or
are not willing to at least entertain this idea, then you probably will not
like this article. If you believe
that human beings should be coddled to death from cradle to grave by a benign
government bureaucracy, then you will not likely appreciate the rest of this
article.
However, it is true that if people are
told what to do day and night, they do not learn as much. They do not have the opportunity to
make mistakes and suffer the consequences, and they generally do not think very
much. As a result, they do not
develop as fast mentally or spiritually.
The reason is that learning to think clearly and carefully, and
suffering the consequences of oneÕs actions and behavior, are critical parts of
mental and spiritual development.
It is as though the brain is like your muscles. You must use the brain, or lose it, as
the saying goes. The brain must be
trained to think clearly and practically.
When human beings are treated like
animals at the zoo – fed, housed, free health care, free everything, they
tend to languish. This is
unfortunate, but it is the truth.
Many parents learn the hard way that coddling and spoiling their
children by giving them everything just does not build character in most
children, for example.
It is the same with adults. Coddling, protecting, spoiling, feeling
sorry for them at every turn, and providing all of their needs sounds utopian,
and is why socialistic thinking is so appealing. In practice, however, a balance is needed. It is important to protect people, but
it is also helpful to allow them the freedom to act, and thus to fail, at
times, and to suffer a little here and there.
THIS IS WHY FREEDOM WORKS
The
above is why freedom works in the world.
It and it alone allows people to progress, to think, to make decisions,
to fail and then to learn from their mistakes. Nations such as Communist Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Iran
and many others that deny people the freedom to think and make decisions
usually do not last long.
These
nations are very socialistic, which means a large, powerful government makes
most of the decisions. The people
are treated more like caged animals in a zoo who are given ÔbenefitsÕ by the
government. The benefits are
supposedly doled out equally to all, even though this is never the case, in reality. In Communist nations, the Communist
party members receive more benefits.
In religious dictatorships like Iran, the religious leaders get the most
benefits, and so on.
In
reality, those who have friends in high places get the most benefits, and the
society is not egalitarian, even though that is what is claimed.
CAPITALISM IS ECONOMIC
FREEDOM
Societies
that are built around giving people choices often give them choices
politically, economically and socially.
These are the three major areas of societal life.
In
the political realm, freedom of choice means that the people can choose their
leaders, usually through democratic elections. This means that the candidate who receives the most votes
gets the job. Politically, freedom
also means that the government must be restrained in its police power. That is the purpose of a
Constitution. It is a contract
between the people and their government that sets down what the people may do
and what the government may do. It
is like any other contract in that it sets down the agreement between the
people and their government. Of
course, it must be enforced or it is just a silly piece of paper. Sadly, in the United States of America,
and even worse in other nations, the intent of the Constitution has been twisted
and ruined by corruption and self-serving politicians, but at least the intent
is still there in the written words of the US Constitution.
CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS
OF FREEDOM
Some
of the safeguards for freedom are the right to speak freely, to write and
report freely, to worship freely, to assemble freely (to hold meetings and
protest freely), to petition the government for grievances without being
arrested, to own weapons freely to defend oneÕs property freely, and to be safe
against unreasonable searches and seizures of property by the government.
Others specified in the US Constitution
are to have a trial by jury if accused of a crime, to have a speedy trial so
one does not languish in jail, to have an attorney given to one to defend one
if accused and one cannot afford an attorney, to travel freely, to not be
forced into a false confession by torture.
Many others, in fact, are in the US
Constitution, such as the right to a Republican form of state and local
government. This is a critical
one. It means free elections and
state constitutions that must abide by and be aligned with and of the same form
as the federal or US Constitution.
Even many more freedoms were intended by
the founders of America and, to some degree, in Great Britain during her better
days of the 18th century, though she has declined today somewhat in
this area of freedom thanks to growing socialism and the European Union, which
is quite socialistic. These are
examples of political freedoms.
THE FREEDOM TO CONTRACT
WITH OTHERS
Now let us discuss economic
freedoms. In the US Constitution
it states that no state may enact a law abridging the right to contract. This means that people can make all
sorts of agreements or contracts with other people. In fact, they should be able to contract with those of other
nations, as well as those within the nation.
This is the main idea of economic
freedom. It means that if I need a
bottle of milk, I can contract with the farmer down the street to pay him or
her some money, and in return the farmer will give me some milk.
If I want an automobile, I can contract
with General Motors or Toyota, or anyone else I wish, to purchase a car, lease a car, trade for a car or any other
economic arrangement provided both parties agree to the contract.
It means that if the two participants in
the contract agree to it, we can barter, we can trade, we can pay cash, we can
use credit cards, we can pay for things with silver dollars, or with cigarettes
or any form of money or value can be exchanged to make the deal or swap of
goods or services. This is economic
freedom at its best.
The name of this system is
capitalism. Let us be very clear
about this. Capitalism is not
about corporations screwing the poor people. It is not about fat cats hoarding all the wealth and killing
off anyone who challenges their dominance in the marketplace. It is not about corporate raiders who
buy other companies, or intentionally ruin them for sheer pleasure and
profit. This is corruption and it
needs to be illegal.
Capitalism is the ability to garner your
resources, use your head, make products that other people want, and to barter
them, sell them, buy them and contract with others any way that two agree to do
it.
Capitalism, by the way, is not just an
economic system. It applies to
your personal life as well. One
could say it is also the freedom to contract with others to get married, have
children, learn a career and practice, and so on. The principle is the same. It is freedom to garner your resources and use your head to
make wise decisions for yourself and hopefully for everyone else. This is capitalism, and this needs to
be taught in school.
Capitalism works well when properly
understood and when cheating is not allowed. When it turns corrupt, of course it does not work as
well. Here are some ways this happens:
Croney capitalism. This occurs when the government, usually, picks out winners
among companies and gives them generous loans that they often know will never
be repaid. Usually, the heads of
the companies donate money to the presidentÕs or leaderÕs campaigns to be
elected, and then the leaders turn around and give public money – money
collected from the people – back to their friends in businesses. This is the classic type of croney
capitalism that has ruined America, China and other nations to a degree.
This is illegal, by the
way, in America. The duties and responsibilities of the
federal and state and local governments of America are spelled out clearly in
the Constitution. If it were
followed, Mr. Obama and many past presidents would be in jail. It is that simple. The government is not allowed to
support private industry at all.
It does not matter if we need green jobs or yellow jobs, or anything
else. The law is the law. The founders understood croney
capitalism very well, so they forbade it.
There are some fine lines, by the way, and I am aware of this. But the principle of croney capitalism
is illegal and must be restored immediately. This means not bailouts of banks, insurance companies,
housing companies, solar companies, car companies, or anything else. It is a hard and fast rule and it must
be enforced or chaos takes over.
Sadly, in most other
nations, it is not illegal.
It sometimes goes by names such as
fascism, or private-public partnerships, or non-governmental entities like
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These
are all illegal, and we must be very clear about it. They are all croney capitalism where the government gets
involved in private business negotiations with individuals and corporations,
sets up their own corporations like Fannie and Freddie, and does business as
though they are individuals, when they have the taxpayers money in their
pockets and often could not care less if it is wisely spent or lost. This has led to the downfall of America
and the rise of Red China, and many other problems in the world. Capitalism is not at fault, croney
capitalism and fascism is at fault.
Other corporate problems
in capitalism. These include simple stealing, lying,
cheating, murdering your adversaries, and general corruption like bribing
government officials to pass laws outlawing your competition, forcing them to
subsidize your product or service, and not others, and so on.
These are all serious problems with
capitalism, but it is important to note that they are really problems with
human behavior. In other words, if
you get rid of capitalism, you will not get rid of these problems. In fact, they often get worse under
socialism. Socialism, in its pure
form, is government control of the means of production or factories, farms,
etc. However, what occurred in the
former Soviet Union, and what occurs today in Red China, Japan, Europe and
other nations is that the government bureaucrats and technocrats who run the
factories and farms are extremely corrupt. They siphon off money for themselves and their friends. They cheat, they lie, they steal, they
bribe and they donÕt hesitate to kill anyone who interferes with their schemes.
Even worse, the enormous power they have
over the economy and political power leads them to become militaristic in all
cases. This is occurring in Red
China today. They are becoming the
next Hitler. They love the idea of
ruling the world, as do all very powerful people. The threat to our world is not the corporations like
Monsanto, though I donÕt like their genetically modified seeds any more than
anyone else. The real threat is
socialism and communism – very similar ideas, in Red China. Monsanto is not building nuclear
submarines and bombs at an unprecedented pace. Red China is doing this, with help from their North Korean
neighbors. It is important to be
very clear who is the real problem in the world today.
The beer and cigarette companies,
Toyota, the drug giants like Merck – they are not building the
bombs. It is the socialistic and
communistic countries like Iran, Russia, and Red China that are doing
this. So the left wing people are
mistaken. The college professors
are mistaken. The people are
ignorant, and this article intends to clear this up.
LOVE VERSUS CREATING
DEPENDENCY
One
may think that love is giving people all of their ÒbenefitsÓ. Indeed, this is a form of love, or
perhaps spoiling. But another kind
of love is giving people choices and allowing them to learn and fail, at times. It is okay to have private safety nets
if people fail, but it is actually more loving to give people choices and
freedom.
One of the main problems with Marxism,
socialism, communism and fascism is these systems of economics and politics are
based on taking peopleÕs power and making them dependent, not on love. If one loves others, one allows others
to have freedom, individual rights, and the ability to earn money and keep what
they earn.
This
is the basic difference between Marxism and capitalism at the very deepest
level. It is a choice between love
of others and a type of fear of the people that causes the leaders of some
nations to want to make everyone dependent upon them for everything in
life. This is actually a principle
that is spiritual at its roots.
THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT
Governments
should help their people develop themselves, and this is why freedom in any
sphere is ultimately helpful, while slavery, welfare, or servitude in any form
is ultimately harmful to a society.
One
of the great secrets of America, at least in the past, has been the lack of
welfare and the development of the citizenÕs own self-reliance. An important part of this has been the
allowing of citizens to own land, to operate businesses and to fail if
conditions or decisions are incorrect.
This system of economics is called free market capitalism. Our nation was founded with these
principles, and the people have prospered enormously when the principles were
adhered to. Let us examine this
economic system in more detail.
WHAT IS FREE MARKET CAPITALISM?
Capitalism
is the economic system used today to some degree in many nations of the
world. Its qualities consists of
three major tenets:
1. People are free to own property, even
if that is a push cart or a vegetable stand in a marketplace.
2.
People are allowed to earn money by making a ÒprofitÓ. Profit is the difference between what
you buy something for and what you sell it for. So if a person has a vegetable stand and they buy carrots
for $1.00 a bundle and sell them for $2.00 a bundle, the profit is one dollar
per bundle. With this profit, the
person pays all the expenses of traveling to the market, buying his products,
and other expenses, and hopefully has some leftover with which to buy other
goods and services. This is the
essence of capitalism and profit.
3.
People are allowed to keep what they earn. They may pay taxes, but they are generally allowed to keep
most of their money.
4.
Information about products and services is made available freely, and not
censored by the government. This
is called a marketplace where people can make rational decisions based on true
information.
Other
Qualities. Each person is also liable for any problems or illegal
activities that arise from their business. Also, all are required to compete with each other for
business on an equal footing. In
other words, in free market capitalism, the government should not fund or
subsidize or treat anyone differently than anyone else. Also, the government does not Òbail
outÓ anyone, there is no welfare system and people must find their own way,
their own employment and their own food and lodging.
In
other words, the role of the government in the economic sphere is simply to be
a ÒrefereeÓ to maintain a level playing field for all business activity, to
make laws to maintain that level playing field, and to catch and bring to
justice anyone who violates those laws, such as thieves, liars, murderers,
those who steal ideas that are trade marked or copyrighted, and so on. The laws are there to protect the right
of each person to do his business as he sees fit, as long as each person does
not violate the economic and political rights of anyone else. This is very important today to
understand that the government can function mainly as a referee and a law
enforcer, NOT as a provider of goods, services, welfare, subsidies, favors and
other things that are subject to political whim and power groups.
This
economic system, though it is more than an economic system, was first
elaborated in detail by men such as Adam Smith in his famous book, The
Wealth Of Nations. Dr.
Smith studied the most successful nations and realized that all shared these
basic principles of commerce. He
put the whole thing together and coined a lot of the terms we take for granted
today in economics.
One
of the most famous was the Òhidden hand of the marketÓ. It is actually quite brilliant. It is the idea that if there is any
good or service that is needed in society, people will pay more for it and this
will attract people he called entrepreneurs into this business, no matter what
it is. It could be garbage
collection or dishwashing, for example.
But if it is needed, the price will go up and more people will begin to
offer the service, until the price comes down and then others will not do this,
but will choose another line of work where the demand is greater.
This
concept works in practice, but most people have trouble trusting it. Government, in particular, often like
to meddle in the marketplace by favoring certain industries or certain
companies. This always causes problems,
but governments persist in this because special interests, as they are called,
often influence the congress of all nations to favor or oppose, at times even
outlawing, certain industries.
In
this regard, capitalism is a very complex, self-regulating economic
system. Few people understand
this, so they are always trying to meddle and ÔfixÕ what seem to by ÔsymptomsÕ
of problems with it, such as how to care for the poor or ill, or what to do
about pollution, for example. Let
us discuss these problems with capitalism.
THE SEEMING HARSHNESS OF CAPITALISM
Seemingly
exploiting the workers.
Karl Marx wrote his thesis, Das Capital, based on what he
believed was the Òexploitation of the workersÓ by the capitalist bosses. They rode around in fancy carriages,
while the workers toiled in the factories for low wages. This is one aspect of the harshness of
capitalism. Of course, what Marx
did not understand is that the workers had few other choices. In other words, they could work just as
hard or harder on the farms, perhaps, for even less money, or they could be
beggars and have an even worse life.
He did not understand that human progress is slow, and the factory life,
while certainly not ideal, offered the working people more, so they flocked to
it by the millions and are still doing so all over the world for exactly the
same reasons.
The
harshness of allowing a business to fail. It seems so harsh, so inhuman, some
would say, to allow a business to fail.
It puts thousands or more out of work, for example. The resources must be sold off at
auction prices and sometimes the creditors of the business are the seeming
victims as well. They may not get
paid for their services and they might fail as well.
The
public seems to lose out, too, if an important type of business like a bank or
General Motors fails. Depositors
at the bank may lose their money, for example. People who have bought General Motors cars might now be able
to have them serviced properly if the company fails. This is one seeming type
of harshness and inhumanity of
free market capitalism.
The
response to this criticism must be understood clearly. It is that 1) all economic activity has
risk. One cannot simply deny the
risk by bailing out every failure.
If one does this, failure becomes the new standard and no one will try
very hard to succeed. This is
exactly what has happened with our banks, today, and with General Motors
today. They have much less
incentive to try hard to do a good job and earn money because they believe they
will be bailed out, also called Ôtoo big to failÕ. This is, in fact, nothing but corruption at high levels of
government. If banks or anyone
cannot act responsibly, they should fail and others would buy up their assets
at bargain prices and do a better job.
That is the way things are done in market economies, and it works well
if one leaves the system alone.
Only corruption causes bailouts.
I am familiar with the arguments that our national security and all
depend on big banks and big car companies. I reject all of this.
I think these are lies told to the public. Once again, the principle works that if one company fails,
others will buy up their assets and continue their production, if it is
economically viable. If it is not
viable, then it should fail because why produce products and services that no
one wants?
POLLUTION
Another
criticism of capitalism is that it causes irresponsible pollution of the air,
water and everything else. This is
completely untrue. First, in true
capitalism, companies are totally responsible for their property and any damage
they do the property of others. Thus,
if they pollute the air, water or land, they are totally responsible. They would be sued out of business for
polluting the property of others.
Sadly, environmental laws have been passed that exempt corporations from
this responsibility in many cases.
As a result, companies are allowed to dump a certain amount of waste
products, for example, without consequence. This is one cause of pollution in
many cases, and is the result of corruption, not capitalism.
Another
aspect of pollution is the fact that in a capitalist nation, new technology
that is cleaner will always win out over older, polluting technology, providing
it is cost effective. This does
not happen enough in America and everywhere else because too many laws protect
the old technologies. For example,
the internal combustion engine probably would be on the scrapheap of history
except for the fact that laws actually protect its use in automobiles,
mainly. I know of a man who was
running his car on other fuels and was arrested and told he could not use his
alternative system. These laws, of
which there are many, such as oil depletion allowances and others, are the
product of corruption and the oil cartel, among other groups. This is not capitalism, but corruption
and cartel politics.
It
is incorrect to blame capitalism, when the very people who are punished by
these laws are often the entepreneurs or capitalists, and the ones who punish
them are the cartel or monopolists, who are basically socialists in disguise
because they are people who want total control of the oil or health or some
other marketplace, so they pass licensing and other restrictive laws that the
car companies and everyone else must abide by or go to jail. There is nothing like this allowed in a
capitalist society.
UNEVEN DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
This
is another criticism of free market capitalism. Some become very rich, while others remain or it seems, are
made poor by the system. This is
the main objection of the socialists to capitalism.
On
the surface, this criticism seems valid.
Pure capitalism seems like a totally selfish system in which one looks
out for oneself to get whatever one can financially. However, this is not true. The reason is that in a capitalist system, the only way one
gets paid is to offer a product or service that others want and therefore are
willing to pay for. This is a
great secret of business that is sometimes expressed as Òthe customer is always
rightÓ. In other words, one must
look out for others, not just for oneself. This fact is overlooked by the socialists. As a result, in fact, in socialist
nations the people are much worse off because the leaders, who claim to want to
do for the people, do not know and often do not care what the people really
want. Instead, they give the
people what they, the leaders, think the people want or should have, and not
what the people really want. In
other words, capitalism is usually must less selfish and narrow-minded than
socialized or command economies in which a central authority dictates which
products and services will exist and their prices.
Now,
it is true that in capitalist nations, some become much wealthier than
others. However, the reason for
this are important to consider. An
important reason this occurs is that some are willing to work harder. Socialist systems favor laziness, in
contrast. The willingness to work
hard is a great benefit for society, so it would make sense that these people
are paid more for their efforts.
One
must not just work harder to make more money. One must also
work in a way that satisfies peopleÕs needs. In a capitalist system, working hard at building products
that no one wants does not make one money, in other words. One must also use oneÕs brain and other
abilities in a way that satisfies the needs of the people. This, too, is a benefit, in general, so
it makes sense these people would receive more compensation.
What
occurs today, however, is often due to corruption. For example, certain industries have passed laws that
exclude others or give themselves special tax breaks. These include the oil industry, the real estate industry,
the medical industry and others.
So people who work in these industries often make a lot of money even if
they donÕt work hard or satisfy peopleÕs real needs. However, this is not a problem with capitalism, but a
problem with human integrity and not allowing pure capitalism to exist in
America and elsewhere because the government tinkers with it for various
reasons.
WHAT ABOUT CARING FOR THE POOR AND THOSE WHO ARE DISABLED OR OLD
OR CANNOT WORK FOR SOME REASON?
This
is another criticism of capitalism.
It takes the attitude that if you donÕt work, you donÕt eat. This is true. Capitalism is about the production of goods and services in
the most efficient manner. It must
be coupled with a moral code, such as that in the bible, that commands people
to love their neighbors as themselves, and to care for others. What occurs in pure capitalist nations,
and used to occur more in America when capitalism was purer, is the development
of private welfare.
Whether
organized by churches or other civic groups and associations, groups spring up
everywhere to care for the poor, the sick, the old, the disabled and other who
cannot produce economically. This
fact is not taught in schools, but is the absolute truth. The idea that the poor will just
languish on the streets without government intervention is a complete lie that
is repeated endlessly on television and in the universities today.
In
fact, private welfare, private hospital care and private old age care tend to
assist people to develop themselves spiritually much more than the entitlement
mentality of a so-called right to health care and welfare that many believe in
today. This is discussed in another article on this website called What is
Compassion? What is Charity?
CONCLUSION
The
moral dimension of human beings is the most important one, as stated
earlier. Capitalism, for all its
seeming harshness, in fact helps people develop themselves. Thus it is a helpful system, much
moreso that the welfare state concept, for example, and far more than slavery,
feudalism and other systems that have been used in the near and distant past in
many civilizations.
The
more that each personÕs activities are pre-determined or controlled by laws,
rules, regulations, prohibitions or mandates, the less each person is able to
exercise moral judgment and the less he or she is responsible for
behavior. As a result, freedom
is an absolute requirement for moral behavior and development.
Home | Hair Analysis | Saunas | Books | Articles
| Detox Protocols
Courses
| About
Dr. Wilson | Contact Us | The Free Basic Program