Answering “Why Not Change the Economy?”

Economic changes over the last 90 years and especially economic proposals in the last three months will push our country’s capitalistic economy to a socialistic economy, thus destroying our freedom to try, buy, sell and fail. We must have a leadership educated in religious based values who also value a free market economy.

The proposed changes in health care, taxes, business involvement, entitlement programs, military reductions, property ownership in action are a reduction in your freedoms and way of life. Let's first look at what the founders had in mind for our economy, and why. With the process of government established and in place, the founding fathers considered how this nation would grow and prosper. They were educated men; they knew the history of nations and their experiments in government and economics. They were very much aware of the need for a nation to have commerce to survive. Fortuitously or by divine help, in 1776 Adam Smith wrote a five volume set of books on the natural laws of the marketplace, "The Wealth of Nations".

Thomas Jefferson and others eagerly read this, because Adam Smith answered the questions of how an economy should work, that would not be socialistic in nature. They evaluated his work and Thomas Jefferson said, "In political economy, I think Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is the best book extant " (Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson).

The basics of Adam Smith's formula are as follows:

1. Specialized production - let each person or corporations of persons do what they do best.
2. Exchange of goods takes place in a free market environment without governmental interference in production, wages or prices.
3. The free-market provides the needs of the people on the basis of supply and demand, with no government imposed monopolies.
4. Prices are regulated by competition on the basis of supply and demand.
5. Profits are looked upon as the means by which production of goods and services is made worthwhile.

This form of capitalism, quickly made America the richest nation on earth. There are four laws of economic freedom that are required to protect this form of capitalism.

1. freedom to try
2. freedom to buy
3. freedom to sell
4. freedom to fail

Adam Smith maintained that the greatest threat to the nation's economic prosperity was arbitrary government intervention into the affairs of private business and the buying public. This often takes the form on fixing wages, controlling production, distribution, monopolies and subsidies. This is precisely what we see with current administration proposals and why the turn to a hard socialistic direction is so damaging to the economy that built this nation.

• Notice I said a ‘hard turn’, everything was working reasonably well up to the early 1900’s. Then in the 1920s our economy began to lose its direction and move left. Adam Smith's ideas were not defended and the country began to ignore the six points of his economic formula. That ignorance has accelerated until the country finds itself in the socialistic state today. Government control of education defines the content our children are taught, appointed ‘czars’ over the economy are not elected and do not answer to you, entitlement programs destroy the moral fabric of people and families (we have 3 and 4 generation welfare families). Current politicians openly promote rewriting the constitution and are not bothered by moving to a socialist economy, the more comfort and security they can promise you, the better their re-election possibilities, and yet they should be bothered if they are honest men of sound character. If they are not bothered, they do not value the four freedoms that made us great. To properly understand how things should be, your basic reading list should include the following books, which can be found and ordered on the website. http://www.thisoughtnottobe.org/
• Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
• The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, plus others
• Disquisition on Government by John Calhoun
• Herbert Spencer, all works (The Man versus the State, First Principles, Education: intellectual, moral and physical)
• The Socialistic Tragedy by Ivor Thomas
• Reflections on the Failure of Socialism by Max Eastman

• Das Kapital, Communist Manifesto and Capital (3 vols). By Karl Marx
• George Soule and Stuart Chose, on The Need for National Blueprints and Investment Boards , see the listed books on the website
• The General Theory Of Employment, Interest And Money by Maynard Keynes

To put this in perspective: the founders designed the government to allow and promote a free market economy. This economy worked then and will work now because:

1. The people are accountable for applying and practicing the Judeo-Christian values taught in their churches. Values such as honesty, doing good, being good even when no one is watching, the golden rule, responsibilities to society rather than rights, fidelity in marriage and more.
2. The government is accountable to protect against illegal force, fraud, debauchery and monopoly.
3. The country then used and should still use Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations as a standard.

• Is the government interfering with production, wages, or pricing?
• Is the government imposing monopolies?
• Is the government regulating competition?
• Are profits and business being taken away?
• Is the government taking away your agency to succeed or fail?

Actions for us to take today:

• Read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, and be able to articulate its principles. All books mentioned here are available for purchase on the website and most are free on Google Books. The google links are also on the website.
• Understand that things began to fall apart in the 1920s due to individual greed and forgetfulness of history both in business and government. Both groups lost sight of the reasons to need the other and government decided it could be a better steward.
• Individual actions that demonstrate your compliance with religious values are extremely important. Failure by individuals to live by these values resulted in the actions of many businessmen being the cause of anti-business legislation in the nation, and laying the ground work for our current economic mess

In summary, the pace towards a socialistic economy has picked up in the last few months. America is now socialistic. We need to be educated in what does and does not work. Socialism does not work, that is well proven and the answer to “Why Not Change the Economy”. Now you have to ask yourself, why is the current administration pushing so hard to adopt a failed model? What is behind the curtain, what are the real reasons?