Freedom Fired, And Forgotten
By Henry Lamb
December 3, 2007
There was a mechanic who was so successful he had to hire someone to answer the phone and schedule appointments. His business prospered and his accountant recommended that he incorporate his business, which he did. Then came hard times. The board of directors, eager to cut costs, fired the mechanic who built the business. The business died.
America may have done the same thing. Freedom - individual freedom - built this great nation. America prospered as no other nation in history had, because individuals were free to invest their time, energy, and creativity into any venture they chose. Individuals were free to accumulate property and wealth - without government oversight or limitation. Individuals were free to pursue happiness any way they chose, and those who chose to infringe upon another's freedom were subject to pay damages as determined by a jury of their peers.
America has fired freedom - the mechanic who built the prosperity in the first place.
For nearly two hundred years, America flourished. Freedom moved civilization from horse-and-buggy to rocket ships to the moon. Of course, free individuals made mistakes. Injustices occurred. People were hurt, and pollution poured from smokestacks where millions of laborers earned their wages. When people are free, these mistakes tend to be self-correcting. When management abused workers, free people created labor unions to balance the power. When landlords abused tenants, bankers offered mortgages so tenants could become homeowners.
A free society allows ideas and creativity to solve problems and make opportunities.
But America has fired freedom. Now the board of directors - the government - is trying to solve problems and create opportunities by forcing individuals to perform as government dictates. The concept behind the "School to Work" initiative of the '90s was to guide individuals into the labor markets that government defined. The concept behind "No Child Left Behind" is to transform the attitudes, values, and ultimately, the behavior of individuals to what the government defines as desirable.
That granite cornerstone of individual freedom - private property - has been jack-hammered into pebbles by a government hell-bent on controlling virtually every aspect of human life.
Government decides how much money may be retained by the individual who earns it. Government decides how land may be used by the individual who owns it. Government now has the power to decide what crops may be grown, and is trying to gain the power to decide which, and how many animals an individual may have. Government decides the minimum wage a job-giver must pay. Government decides who employers may and may not hire and fire through laws that seek to "equalize opportunity."
Tragically, most Americans see nothing wrong in this government power. They never knew the original mechanic - freedom - who provided the prosperity they now enjoy.
The opposite of a free society is a managed society. The "land of the free..." is roaring toward a government-managed society. For more than a generation, America has accepted the proposition that the "collective good" is more important than individual freedom. The fallacy in this belief is the fact that government decides what is the "collective good." In a free society, the result of individuals pursuing their own prosperity results in a "collective good," that far outstrips anything any government can dare to dream.
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