In 2012, will the citizens of the United States of America ("We, the People") assert our Constitutionally-designated role as "the only KEEPERS" (Justice Story) of our Constitution's limitations on the coercive power of our elected and appointed representatives?
And,
2. Where in the world will individual citizens enjoy the greatest degree of their Creator-endowed liberty to "pursue" happiness?
Neither China nor any other nation in the world can out-perform an America where "the People" understand and uphold their Constitution's enduring principles.
Perhaps American citizens are getting a belated lesson in economics and an American History lesson as a result of the shocking policies of Congress and the Administration during recent months. If the citizenry is awakened to the kinds of facts discusssed in this piece, and if they will go back and review the philosophy of the Framers of the U. S. Constitution, they may perhaps begin to understand how America became the symbol of liberty, opportunity and prosperity for millions throughout the world. The following essay, is reprinted with permission from "Our Ageless Constitution." See
"Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise." - Thomas Jefferson
"The enviable condition of the people of the United States is often too much ascribed to the physical advantages of their soil & climate .... But a just estimate of the happiness of our country will never overlook what belongs to the fertile activity of a free people and the benign influence of a responsible government." - James Madison
America's Constitution did not mention freedom of enterprise per se, but it did set up a system of laws to secure individual liberty and freedom of choice in keeping with Creator-endowed natural rights. Out of these, free enterprise flourished naturally. Even though the words "free enterprise' are not in the Constitution, the concept was uppermost in the minds of the Founders, typified by the remarks of Jefferson and Madison as quoted above. Already, in 1787, Americans were enjoying the rewards of individual enterprise and free markets. Their dedication was to securing that freedom for posterity.
The learned men drafting America's Constitution understood history - mankind's struggle against poverty and government oppression. And they had studied the ideas of the great thinkers and philosophers. They were familiar with the near starvation of the early Jamestown settlers under a communal production and distribution system and Governor Bradford's diary account of how all benefited after agreement that each family could do as it wished with the fruits of its own labors. Later, in 1776, Adam Smith's INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS and Say's POLITICAL ECONOMY had come at just the right time and were perfectly compatible with the Founders' own passion for individual liberty. Jefferson said these were the best books to be had for forming governments based on principles of freedom. They saw a free market economy as the natural result of their ideal of liberty. They feared concentrations of power and the coercion that planners can use in planning other peoples lives; and they valued freedom of choice and acceptance of responsibility of the consequences of such choice as being the very essence of liberty. They envisioned a large and prosperous republic of free people, unhampered by government interference.
The Founders believed the American people, possessors of deeply rooted character and values, could prosper if left free to:
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Such a free market economy was, to them, the natural result of liberty, carried out in the economic dimension of life. Their philosophy tended to enlarge individual freedom - not to restrict or diminish the individual's right to make choices and to succeed or fail based on those choices. The economic role of their Constitutional government was simply to secure rights and encourage commerce. Through the Constitution, they granted their government some very limited powers to:
Adam Smith called it "the system of natural liberty." James Madison referred to it as "the benign influence of a responsible government." Others have called it the free enterprise system. By whatever name it is called, the economic system envisioned by the Founders and encouraged by the Constitution allowed individual enterprise to flourish and triggered the greatest explosion of economic progress in all of history. Americans became the first people truly to realize the economic dimension of liberty.
Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5
This is very true. But many confuse this with letting a company have free reign to do as it wishes without regard to any moral or ethical boundaries as they affect our citizens. Being free from special interests, this is openly violated by big business such as when recently the US Chamber, representing a multitude of special interests, used the financial status of the rich to manipulate our elections to their advantage. You cannot "enforce free trade" or it is not free. Trade where any one company or individual is free to force others out is not free trade. From the consumer standpoint, free trade is not free when there are no choices, or when the price is raised beyond the reasonable in the pursuit of greed.
Can democracy survive the meddling of special interests?
Big companies are not moral or ethical. Government is a moderating force where corporate actions harm society or individuals. Case in point is the estimated 48,000 deaths a year because Americans were turned away or denied health care due to high price or refusal of coverage.
The 2007-2008 recession was a grand example of an untamed "free market" financial system who's greed nearly destroyed a world economy.
There will always be a need for a government responsible to its masses to stand guard over abuse of the few to stop the harm to the many and to society. Government is not supposed to be "them" v "Us" it is us, doing for ourselves what we cannot do as individuals. All too often those we elect fail to do their duty.
A "totally free" market would destroy us all including its own destruction. Like a kid needs a parent to keep it safe from its own mistakes, our commerce needs us, those whom those markets serve, to have a mechanism of self preservation.