Seems to me that we are, one more time, forgetting how we became the country to which so many people want to come. I still think that the best way to measure the success of a country is the answer to a simple question—do they have borders to keep people from leaving (that’s why East Berlin built the Wall), or do they have borders because so many people want to get in?
Many would have us believe that a free market economy exploits poor people. But, oddly enough, poor people flock and fight to get into this country. Too many people think that the free market is great because it lets some people get rich. Actually it is great because it is best for everyone.
History has shown over and over again that the free market is best. Yet we tend to forget that every few decades. Are we doing it again?
We all know that this country’s founders were greatly influenced by John Locke’s writings. We seem to forget that they were also greatly influenced by The Wealth of Nations, the great book of economics written by Adam Smith and published in 1776, the year of our Declaration of Independence. Our government was set up politically as a democracy, and economically as a free market. We seem to remember only the democracy.
We think of ourselves as a relatively new country, but we are the oldest country that has been governed by one tool, our Constitution. We have lasted because of our democracy and our economy. The free market is economically as basic to a free people as is democracy.
I only wish that we were as dedicated to our free economy as to our democratic government.
We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.
