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We continue our series of editorials on ten guiding words crucial to the mission of refocusing the conservative movement. We've covered reality, reason, morality, unity, responsibility, restraint, law, and contribution - this week we will take at enterprise...
Enterprise
The search for the historical difference between America and much of the rest of the world does not rest on our people, our geography, or our climate. Those things can be duplicated or bettered by others. What makes us truly special is a constitutional system that supports free enterprise - a system that has uplifted more people with more consistency than any other in history.
Enterprise Feeds Liberty
Free enterprise is an intentional system of governance that values the creative and productive capacities of the individual. Looking to nature for guidance, capitalism - another name for free enterprise - recognizes that those who have skin in the game are more accountable and persistent than those waiting for a handout.
The capacity to build your own thing and absorb the reward of those efforts is liberating. Such opportunity not only uplifts the individual, but also the entire culture surrounding that individual. If you are blessed to live in an environment that supports individual initiative, then personal freedom is yours as a bonus. Capitalism's emphasis on doing your own thing is liberty in a very pure form.
Capitalism is a Good Word
It's not surprising that liberal fantasy thinkers work so hard to discredit capitalism. It's their primary competition for the hearts, minds, and pocket books of the masses. Socialists produce false advertisements on capitalism for much the same reasons that Brand X often tries to convince us that name brands aren't really as good as they pretend. In truth, most name brands became such because they earned it. Most Brand X's remain such for the same reason.
By design, capitalism keeps commerce, production, investment, and property ownership in the hands of citizens versus the hands of government. It is this formula, more than any other that holds the potential to insure a nation prioritizes big people over big government. Conservatives, unlike socialists, fascists, communists, nationalists, and other Brand X philosophies, recognize that you can have big people or big government - never both.
Imperfection is Nature's Way
If man lays his hand to something, then the potential for abuse is immediately in play - capitalism is no exception. Greed, dishonesty, and manipulation can be a part of capitalism just like in socialism, communism, and fascism. What separates capitalism from the others is the self-correcting nature of a transparent and unrigged free enterprise system - the other 'isms' of man have no matching safeguards and are thus inevitably more destructive.
The negative publicity received by capitalism comes from three primary sources - leftheaded distortions; capitalism wanabees rigged for special interests; and criminal behavior. The left lies about capitalism because they dislike the competition for power. America, for decades, has been plagued by government and special interest manipulations that are misusing capitalism. Rigged capitalism is not about free enterprise so much as selfish interest indulgence. Criminal misbehavior is what it is - criminalism, ala Bernie Madoff, Enron, and those who employee illegal immigrants and holds none of the merits of the constructive enterprise of capitalism.
You Earn It - You Get to Own It
Central to authentic capitalism is the principle that if you earn it, then you should have the right to own it. That principle applies to wages, property, and opportunity. Other systems maintain a dedication to the concept that it is OK to milk the labors of others as long as you pretend you are doing so for altruistic reasons. Stealing, however, is stealing, not matter how much lipstick you apply to the pig.
There are few greater historical voices for capitalism than Winston Churchill. He recognized the weight of potentials over imperfections in a system of free enterprise - "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Conservatives recognize a culture rewarding the labors of its members opens the doors to a future of potentials. A culture robbing the labors of its members opens the doors to a future of despair...
Next week - in a continuation of our series on 'Real Conservative' we will conclude with the importance of 'liberty' to the conservative movement...
Dr. Carl Mumpower
www.thecandidconservative.com
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