“Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.”
Winston Churchill
It seems as I try to explain why freedom is moral, I find the issues and explanations go deeper than I realized. Don’t quite know when I came to the conclusion that freedom is the moral option – it seems I’ve always believed that.
In The Moral Case for Capitalism: More than Utility, Jacqueline Otto explains that capitalism and morality go hand-in-hand:
Capitalism is designed to marry a man’s moral and material growth, so that both can be fully mature. (more…)
A: Yes.
How the Taxman Cleared the Dance Floor in the Wall Street Journal explains a 30% excise tax on any venue that served food and had dancing did in two-thirds of the very popular dance clubs. Passed in 1944, the so-called ‘cabaret tax’ was intended to hit those filthy rich people who dined and danced in fancy places.
Eric Felton explains shortly after the tax was passed, the Bureau of Internal Revenue provided a very broad definition of what places the tax applied. It covered anyplace that served food and dancing with live singing. Those were an extremely popular form of entertainment during and after WWII.
The entire industry of dining and dancing was devastated: (more…)
“Profits earned honestly in the market are moral. They arise from morality and they reinforce morality.”
Providing goods or services that other people value and are willing to pay for is moral. Check out this video for a deeper explanation.
The Morality of Profit:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnHQammdwGQ&feature=player_embedded]
Capitalism involves voluntary exchanges.
Vendors don’t have to supply a company.
Employees don’t have to work for a particular store.
Customers don’t have to shop there.
Each of those people do so because it provides value to them. The business in turn creates value for everybody it deals with, not just investors.
From the book Morality of Capitalism, available free from Students for Liberty here , here is one of many great comments from John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods:
Putting it generally, successful businesses create value. (more…)
In North Carolina it is.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5EixDJ25Lc&feature=player_embedded]
“My family and I have succeeded by following the path to freedom. But that path is on the verge of vanishing. What we’re starting to see here in America now is a growth in the size and the scope of government that is now starting to look like the governments that we left behind.”
Here is how to lift people up the economic ladder:
Advancing economic freedom is the best way to improve human well-being, especially those at the bottom.
That’s the path to moving out of poverty and economic success. Check out this video from LIBRE Initiative:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNHywGefNnQ&feature=player_embedded]