A few months ago a well-researched friend of mine spoke very negatively about the current state of American markets and how those markets interact with politics and governance. While we might be facing too much intrusion by the government on the markets and the same vice versa, my friend went on to conclude that Marxism was more agreeable. He insisted that the Communist Manifesto was superior to any other system and it may well be…. If we were all automatons.
The obvious problem with communism is its erosion of the natural spirit of mankind to better one’s own existence. By limiting a man’s scope of achievement to the level of effort from the laziest among us, communism creates a quagmire. Under communism brand new inventions remain the latest technology for decades and normally such technology is either imported or reverse engineered. Quite rarely has any new invention ever come from a communist state. I surely cannot name one.
But this is nothing new to any reader of history, politics or economics. What is new is the misplaced attitude that sprung from communism. In America there has been a growing demand for greater taxation of the rich “because they can afford it and I can’t”. Certainly, any equalizing taxation is taken directly from Marx’s ‘according to’ principle. “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.” Essentially, this opposed freedom by granting the state the right to confiscate and redistribute funds in the most ‘fair’ allocation.
Think about it, if equal distribution of prosperity is the result of ‘fair’ taxes, we would all be prosperous. Then, if we allow in more tired, sick and huddled masses, we must spread the prosperity on them. It’s only a matter of numbers before the honey is spread too thin and no one has anything of which to speak.
But that is not what most Americans are saying, is it? Most of those who believe in higher taxes for the rich are saying so because they would rather someone else pay for their share. So, they are not advocating equality at all. In fact, what they are advocating could probably be best described as government assisted theft. Rich people do not receive any greater benefit from the government in protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than the rest of America. Quite the opposite, rich people secure those things for themselves sometimes away from the government. In the process of doing so, sometimes unwittingly, provide avenues for the rest of America to secure those ideals as well. This is because wealth is best saved in investments rather than in vaults.
But, what some people propose is that the rich be forced to give up their wealth or face prison time while the rest of America keeps the great wealth it already has. Yes, great wealth.
Compare America to the rest of the world. They say it is immoral for a rich American to have twenty sport cars while the average American family sometimes struggles to pay off their two vehicles. Would it not then be immoral for a normal American family to have two vehicles while the average person in Africa has little more than clothing and a stick hut?
After all, communism is based upon the invaluability of human life. If life is greater in value than anything else then all other morals are subject to repeal if some people do not provide for themselves. It is truly ironic that communism is appealing because of it’s attempt to help and ends only causing further detriment. But if life is invaluable in America, would we be saying that in Africa life is of less worth? Certainly. If communism is right in America, it must exist everywhere.
I recall, a few months back, a missionary visiting my church noted that a wealthy man in India had built an enormous mansion in the middle of the poorest area in a city. He hired 600 servants to take care of the house. The missionary noted that it was obscene wealth among the poor peoples but he did not even mention that those six hundred residents of that area would not have a stable job otherwise.
Recently, talk radio #3 Glenn Beck read a quote from the founder of the ACLU, Roger Baldwin; “I have continued directing the unpopular fight for the rights of agitation as the director of the American Civil Liberties Union. I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”
That quote encapsulates the true ideals of communism. It is a scary statement, more so that there are those who openly subscribe to it. Perhaps, though, it is a way to take heart for America. We do not believe in social ownership, we do not believe in an ending of personal property and we do not believe in governmental control over anything. Even the majority of people who desire rich people to be taxed greater do not want their own property striped.
In terms of pure analysis, it is almost capitalist to push ones own tax burden onto someone else. Imagine you had a bill to pay that always came up to twenty percent of everything you make. If you could push that onto someone else, you would make a twenty percent profit. The only problem that arises is the immorality of stealing that money from someone else’s wallet with the pen of Congress.
The nanny state is creeping. Recently, the #1 Rush Limbaugh played a sound bite of an Iowan crying because Obama held her hand. She’s replaced her father with a politician. Government is not to hold citizen’s hands. Government is to get out of citizen’s way.
It takes a village, right? Perhaps not. James Madison once objected to Congress who had appropriated money for a relief effort. “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
The addiction to sloth exists with the endless lines of social programs but it is not rooting out all of capitalism quite yet. The benefit from hard work is a very effective lesson in valuation and governmental theft. If the rest of us who are wise educate those who are not, America will continue leading the world.
As for the markets, there are always problems but one statement will give us the confidence necessary to battle the waves. We are Americans. We overcome. It is our heritage. We always have done so.
Was it easy to fight the Civil War? Was it easy to fight the Revolution? What about the two world wars? How did we manage to produce everything and completely revolutionize the lifestyles of the modern world? In retrospect, things might seem easy because the word win has always been in our history books. These odds were seemingly insurmountable and yet we always overcome. Market forces are no greater a danger than we have ever faced in any generation much less in this generation. They just seem so because our forefathers have made our lives so much easier than anyone could imagine.
We are Americans. We overcome.
