The Morality of Capitalism

I wrote this in August 2008.  It did not make it to the new Politically Empowered site but it has timeless concepts that deserve to be preserved.

I feel sorry for Jonathan Hoenig the Managing Member of Capitalist Pig Asset Management and also Fox News contributor.

He is about the only one on the financial shows, who understands the philosophy and principle behind the free market. He is the only one I’ve seen articulate the ultimate morality of the free market.

I am continually amazed at the ignorance of free market principles by supposed financial experts. There are a few others on the Fox broadcasts who get it, Neil Cavuto and Gary B. Smith seem to but perhaps do not put the philosophy of the free market in moral terms.

I am not just talking about the whole dog and pony show of the financial sector 700 billion dollar bail out which is likely to have long term and dire consequences for the U.S. economy. Many of the so-called financial experts have jumped on board the bail out plan but I am not surprised.

What I have been surprised and disappointed about are the people who seem to be successful in the business of buying and selling stocks, tracking markets and making money do not have a grounding in the moral principles behind that activity.

I am sure a lot of these people do not know or care that there may be an actual principle there. There are those that just want to accumulate money and buy into the leftist philosophy of “you aren’t moral unless you give your money to the government so it can help the poor dumb bastards that you capitalist pigs are exploiting”.

Recently there was a discussion about lobbyists on one of the “Cost of Freedom Business Block” programs. Every one of the so-called experts missed the fact that…well, here is the letter I wrote:

I cannot believe that of all the seemingly smart people you have on your panel not one can see the true cause and effect on this subject.

Panelist say, “Lobbyists are bad”, “but they’re protected by the first amendment” blah blah blah.”

Not one said that the politicians are selling their votes for cash. They are saying, “It isn’t the politicians that are bad it is the lobbyists.” “The poor politicians are just overwhelmed with cash, how can they say no?” Think this thought through. It is the politicians that hold the power. They hold the gun. They get to say who can and cannot.

A company or sector of the economy that does not hire a lobbyist risk their business because the politicians can legislate them out of that business either directly or by giving competitors an advantage by law. It would be financial suicide for them to not have a voice in the political arena.

The fact is that most of the things Congress is making law on are things not granted to the federal government by the constitution and so it should have no power to affect one way or another where those tax dollars go. If the politicians had no power to pass laws on things not granted to it by the Constitution there would be no need for lobbyists and no money flowing into personal coffers of our corrupt politicians.

One of the panelists said we should have smaller government but did not say how. We need to get back to following the Constitution and overturn the Supreme Court decisions that interpreted the Commerce clause and the Equal Protection clause in ways certainly the founding fathers never intended.

If we do not get back to following the Constitution, I am afraid we will not have a country as politicians will become more and more corrupt and more businesses will have to try to stave off being legislated out of business.

So there you are, a profound non-understanding of not only the morality of capitalism but of the Constitution.

I guess I should not be so hard on the Fox pundits. They are but bit players. However, if we do not start educating our children and ground them in the philosophy of capitalism, a philosophy that has brought up the standard of living more people than all of the charities in all times combined, then we are throwing those children to the wolves of leftist thought and morality, a morality that has killed millions of people in the name of ending war. It is a morality that has lowered the standard of living of all those who embrace it, with the promise of equality. And it is the same philosophy in a different guise that poses as a religion of peace but will kill every one who doesn’t agree.

Until we defeat this immoral philosophy we will be at risk of not just a lower standard of living but slavery…or being buried, probably in a shallow grave.

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