Free Markets and Progress

Here is an interesting story about Chinese "Communism" and how it changed and became more capitalist. The results are telling. Private property makes the incentive to work, to be frugal, to save, and to invest in the future palpable. We should remember this story as our "capitalism" heads in the other direction.

1. We should remember that this story--privatizing agriculture--was our story. Bradford, in Of Plymouth Plantation, tells almost exactly the same story. They were all starving and working collectively on the one farm. The leadership decided that the land would be privatized. They went to work and found prosperity.

2. We should see that any time the government steps in to protect and guide they are harming. People can and will make society work. They can do almost everything without government intervention. The US Constitution is a great experiment in limiting what the government can do. We proposed because of this limitation. As we have removed these restrictions we see more government intervention, more subsidy, and less motivation to figure out cost effective ways to do things for ourselves.

3. We should understand what positive forces could be released if we would remove the massive subsidies in particular areas. I am most interested in education. Americans can and will send their children to school. Most understand their own and their children's self interest. Presently the subsidy built into the system means incredibly high costs (mainly now because of bureaucracy and benefit promises) at the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels. If this would stop, then we could build an educational system that would be (I hope) better and more cost effective. This would not mean the end of teaching for good teachers in the public schools. Great teachers will always be in demand. It would mean a reshuffling of the deck... and I believe this is going to come. I believe it more each day.