Friday, August 3, 2012

He did the mash, the Milton Friedman mash.

Speaking of Moby Dick, I've been spouting like a whale about Milton Friedman's free-market economics. Gosh by golly, there is bits and pieces of constitutional freedom to discuss in relation to it all. According to Friedman,  free speech meant an individual could submit a business proposal, one could speak in the interest of one's own property, one could originate a  contract, but biggest of all, Friedman believed the Constitution was instrumental in making the switch from feudalism to free-market economics. The founding fathers conceived  free-market economics so that people could earn a living.They could in turn build whatever influence that enabled. Without a monarchy or oppressive big government.   Or a very devious little one.  Just people plying their trades and using their best judgement.

Friedmanites sometimes say that independent tradesmanship affords people the place to apply the ethics of the individuals choosing, and to promote the values that best serve.  So, you might ask, why not go with socialism, to achieve a just and humane society?  Aren't all capitalists a pig?  No, no, no.  So says Milton, free market economics allows people to act as humanitarians.

The fundamental problem with socialism is that people act in their own immediate best interest, act secondly in the interest of relatives, and tertiary in the interest of trusted freinds or aparatchiks. If people collectivized as wonderfully as all great socialist thinkers may have hoped, people wouldn't be a greedy prick on the one end of the economy and the abused yet clueless failures on the other. Maybe that's a mean and over simplistic model. I haven't had my Wheaties today.

The United States is in the grips of monopoly communism There exists a theory called the convergence theory, which states that at some point, from pure necessity , communism and capitalism would merge into one complex economy. That's our status quo. I've become a big fan of Milton Friedman's because people need to be able to earn money, and enter into the economy in order to have political influence. Socialism forces dependence on government, enslaving the masses, and not liberating them, as pop folklore is known to suggest.   .Look around you.  It's twit city. 

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