Posted by
HaskinsNews.com -Justin Haskins on Saturday, October 25, 2008 2:01:00 PM
Isn't it ironic that the very person who has run a campaign preaching unfounded "hope" and "change" is the very person who could destroy the American dream completely?
My grandfather used to say, "America is a great country; give me a hammer and a wrench and I can start a business." The story of my family is much like that of most Americans. My parents worked hard, pulled themselves up from difficult economic circumstances, and have elevated themselves to become extremely successful and respected. They did this with the notion that their hard work and their dedication were all that was needed to attain wealth. Gone are these notions, however. No longer do we value and aspire to be like the many generations of Americans before us. We are increasingly becoming more dependent upon the government, and by doing so, we are losing our freedom.
Capitalism was selected as our form of economy for many reasons; the most obvious reason being that England had been a capitalist nation for a great deal of time and the economics of it all worked supremely well. Capitalism itself is perfect for democracy. This is true not simply because capitalism gives consumers choices and allows for economic growth, but also because capitalism eliminates a dependence on the government for your own personal welfare. People who have wealth and capital need workers to develop products and services. Workers need wages and the services offered by those with the capital available to produce such processes. The system takes care of itself. Feudal Europe in the Middle Ages used an economic structure where the people of a nation or region were not only forced through the use of force to abide by aristocracies but also were economically bound. The government, consisting mostly of monarchies, were also the owners of the land. Through this, they were able to control the lives of citizens by controlling laws as well as wealth. What makes America an amazing concept is its ability to separate the government from the economy.
It is true that capitalism, which is fueled by greed, can grow out of control. It is essential the government oversees the matters of the economy and prevents illegal acts committed by businesses. Outside of that very limited role, government should remove themselves from the economic process completely. In all honesty, I believe the government's role should be limited to enforcing economic laws to prevent a lack of competition. As explained by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations, the less the government gets involved, the better of the economy is.
What is missed in all of this though is the how the power of government changes along with the level of involvement they have in the economy. If people depend upon the government for economic growth then people are forced to hand more power over to those government agencies willing to provide economic relief. We are living in a time where this is quickly becoming commonplace.
The government is spending more money and providing more services than ever before (Adjusted for inflation). Worst of all, the government is doing what it can to maintain its power. Social services, once created are impossible to get rid of because those who become dependent upon them will only elect those politicians who intend on keeping those programs around. This is now the sad state of America. We are losing our freedom so that small pockets of our population may attain government aid. A large number of Americans who receive nothing from these programs are convinced by the media and by the government sponsored education system that these kinds of programs are good for the economy as a whole, which of course, they are not.
So now we are a mere few moments away from electing Barack Obama, a man who believes in "building the economy from the ground up." He believes in taking capital away from those who have it and then distributing it to those who have no capital. Within the teachings of Karl Marx, you will find quite frequently that he believed communism and socialism were a historical and sociological fact. To Marx, these systems were a way of life that all people, regardless of their current state, would eventually follow. In fact, Marx believed that in order to get to socialism and communism, you must first have capitalism. Unlike Marx, I do not believe that all peoples must follow this path. With that said, it does appear that our country is moving rapidly towards very dangerous socialistic ideas. Barack Obama represents this kind of change. Obama represents a movement toward an economic structure that can destroy our capitalism, and by extension, our freedom. When the government engages in the economy directly, we lose our economic choices, our ability to take economic risks, and our sovereign right to hold onto the vast majority of the wealth we earn. Like baseball in Welfare and other social programs in the past, socialism is becoming as American as apple pie.