Liberty Maven

It’s getting lonely out here. With the United States embracing economic socialism from both Republicans and Democrats, the voices for capitalism and free unfettered markets are bouncing around in an echo chamber. Those of us who believe in the America of our founders have faith in only a handful of people to redirect the fear-induced socialist policies back to the freedom of our founding. One such person is Ron Paul, the much media-maligned Republican Congressman and former presidential candidate from Texas.

I say media-maligned in reference to his presidential campaign because in these days of bailouts and increasing central economic planning Ron Paul is a hot media ticket. Lately it seems that every time you turn the television to a national news channel he is there pounding the free market drum. While his words are welcomed they are never acted upon by those who have the power to do so.  Paul introduces his own legislation and it gets ignored. Paul discusses that we are doing the exact wrong things in our economy to prolong the agony rather than shorten its duration. He says we didn’t learn from the Great Depression because we are making the same mistakes today.

I fear it is too late. Too late for a true movement toward liberty. I fear the seeds of socialism have been planted. More and more socialism has become the perceived solution to our troubles. With few exceptions, like Ron Paul, not many seem to believe that socialist and regulatory policies are the reason for our troubles. Why is this misconception so prevalent?

It seems the reason could be that we have a culture of shallowness that seeks short term bandaids rather than long term therapy. We want what we want and we want it now now now. So we accept socialist solutions because over the short term they are just lovely. Unfortunately, over the long term they become unsustainable. Why are we implementing economic policies that helped push the Soviet Union toward collapse? In the end is that what we want for America? Does anyone even consider the Constitution any more?

In 1957, Ayn Rand penned “Atlas Shrugged”. It is full of passages that capture what we liberty lovers are fighting against. One such excerpt captures the essence of my fear about the state of our economy and what lies in our future.

“Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’

“When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are.

We live in interesting times. I hope our worst fears aren’t realized.