Posts Tagged ‘free market’

The Pilgrims nearly starved to death because of an ill fated experiment with Communism

Posted: November 23, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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For the past several decades Progressives have been steadily transforming the United States from a Free Market nation based on individualism into Socialist nation based on collectivism.  These radical leftists completely ignore the bloody and brutal legacy of all collectivist ideologies.  Starvation and misery are the only things that are abundant in a Communist or Socialist economy.

Today’s Progressives go to great lengths to hide the fact that the earliest colonies here in what became the United States experimented with Communism.  Those early experiments very nearly ended in total failure.  Disaster was only averted when the colonies switched to a Free Market economy based on individualism.  Plymouth Plantation was one of the colonies.  This is chronicled here in William Bradford: from History of Plymouth Plantation, c. 1650.

This first quote describes their experiment with communist:

The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; and that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. 

It did not work out at all.

For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors and victuals, clothes etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it.

The Pilgrims began their experiment with the most noble of intentions, it failed because human societies always falter when collectivism is attempted.

Upon the point all being to have alike, and all to do alike, they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relations that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them. And would have been worse if they had been men of another condition. Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.

Disaster was averted and Plymouth Plantation thrived when William Bradford proposed a radical change to a free market economy based on individualism.

All this while no supply was heard of, neither knew they when they might expect any. So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other thing to go on in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end, only for present use (but made no division for inheritance) and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.

Rest in Peace Walter E Williams

Posted: December 10, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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I was greatly saddened by the passing of Walter E Williams.  He was one of the two authors most responsible for me becoming a Libertarian and free market warrior, the other is Thomas Sowell. Through my teenage years, until I was in my early twenties I was a hardcore progressive/socialist.  It was through an exhaustive amount of reading and research that led to my great political enlightenment.  Walter Williams played a major, and very entertaining, part in that awakening.

As you can see from this quote, which appeared in the February 8 2006 article On Bogus Right, Walter Williams was a very outspoken critic of the federal government, and of the redistribution of wealth.

Three-fifths to two-thirds of the federal budget consists of taking property from one American and giving it to another. Were a private person to do the same thing, we’d call it theft. When government does it, we euphemistically call it income redistribution, but that’s exactly what thieves do — redistribute income. Income redistribution not only betrays the founders’ vision, it’s a sin in the eyes of God.

Walter Williams was an Economics professor at George Mason University.  I know he must have been a very informative and entertaining teacher because I’ve watched a great many videos of him speaking and T saw him on TV quite often. He was an outspoken critic of socialism. Here is a  quote from the article Evil Concealed by Money, 19 November 2008.

This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one’s fellow man. Helping one’s fellow man in need, by reaching into one’s own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another’s pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation.

Here is another quote on the subject from Socialist Promises 25 May 2019.

Socialism promises a utopia that sounds good, but those promises are never realized. It most often results in massive human suffering. Capitalism fails miserably when compared with a heaven or utopia promised by socialism. But any earthly system is going to come up short in such a comparison. Mankind must make choices among alternative economic systems that actually exist. It turns out that for the common man capitalism, with all of its alleged shortcomings, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with his everyday needs and desires. By most any measure of human well-being, people who live in countries toward the capitalistic end of the economic spectrum are far better off than their fellow men who live in countries toward the socialist end.

Walter Williams was as big a proponent of free market capitalism as he was a critic of socialism.

Capitalism, or what some call free markets, is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way individuals amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. With the rise of capitalism, it became possible to amass great wealth by serving and pleasing your fellow man. Capitalists seek to discover what people want and produce and market it as efficiently as possible as a means to profit. A historical example of this process would be John D. Rockefeller, whose successful marketing drove kerosene prices down from 58 cents a gallon in 1865 to 7 cents in 1900. Henry Ford became rich by producing cars for the common man. 

Here is a quote by Walter E. Williams from All It Takes Is Guts that I’ve shared on social media many times

But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you – and why?”

The following two quotes are from memes I shared on Facebook.  I tried to track down the source of the quotes but Google failed me.  I’m 100 percent positive they’re accurate. I remember reading them in articles recently,―

Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place

Whether we want to own up to it or not, the welfare state has done what Jim Crow, gross discrimination and poverty could not have done,  It has contributed to the breakdown of the black family structure and has helped establish a set of values alien to traditional values of high moral standards, hard work, and achievement.

I’m going to end this article with a very recent quote from a Daily Wire Article

The biggest casualty from the COVID-19 pandemic has nothing to do with the disease. It’s the power we’ve given to politicians and bureaucrats. The question is how we recover our freedoms.

Beer, Crops, Laptops Browsers & Retailers Under the Fedora

Posted: August 16, 2020 by datechguy in under the fedora
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Apparently a small beer company in Seattle is making beer with the Acronym APAB (all Police are bastards) on each can. The owner says he’s happy to lose customers that disagree.

The irony here is palatable he is free to put whatever message he wants on the beer, other are free not to buy it, that’s free market capitalism at work.

The bigger irony? He is free to do so because he doesn’t have to worry about those who disagree torching his brewery, thanks to police.

In something right out of the movie The Devil & Daniel Webster, between 180 and 270 million bushels of corn in Iowa were likely damaged by hurricane force winds and rain that hit the state. Given that Corn is the basis for a lot of what we make and eat expect food prices to go up fast.

As Glenn Reyonlds put it: “We’re lucky to live in a country where news like this doesn’t presage a famine.”

Thank capitalism.

I finally got that replacement laptop I was talking about. I ended up buying a HP from my local Staples vs the Acer I was going to buy on Amazon because it seemed to me that every single laptop being sold there was from a 3rd party seller and the number of bad reviews of the specific sellers seemed awful high to me so I decided I’d rather buy somewhere so if there is a problem I can go to an actual person in an actual store face to face (or these days mask to mask) for relief rather than go to court.

It’s nice having choices like this rather than having to go through a monopoly like Amazon.

Thank Capitalism

Counting the new laptop that is still in its box I now have 3 laptops functioning. All of my email in done on the oldest. This one is going to get hooked up to ann old screen with an HDMI cable as soon as I find one and the new one will be for my general work. Interesting point. Didn’t have brave on the oldest laptop and because I wanted a link for an email opened a site I visit regularly in chrome.

The number of ads and popups was astounding. You don’t really appreciate the joy of running a brower like Brave until you do without it.

Thanks free market.

Finally apparently Macy is leaving its location in Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile” where it currently has 8 levels with 170,000 square feet but has been hit twice during riots.

Everyone is insisting that this has nothing to do with the riots or police response I’m sure Amazon’s moves to get people out of Seattle and into the suburbs have nothing to do with the riots either.

But that’s the thing about the free market, people respond to incentives whether they are taxing to the pocketbook or hazardous to one’s health.

Someone might want to warn Austin Texas about this.

Thanks to the private sector the US is a space faring nation again

Posted: August 6, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Like so many in this great nation I was glued to my TV this past Sunday afternoon watching the SpaceX’s Dragon capsule successfully splash down off the coast of Pensacola Florida.  While I was watching  the live coverage for several hours I was filled with tremendous pride because the United States is once again a space faring nation, something we have not been since President Obama canceled the Space Shuttle ten years ago.

What impressed me the most about this particular space flight was the fact that SpaceX is a private company rather than a government agency.  The free market has always been the engine that propelled the United States into becoming the most prosperous nation in the history of the world yet almost the entire US space program was placed in the hands of the federal government.  As a believer in free market capitalism I always considered this to be a mistake.  This article John Stossel: The private space race and the successful mission that concluded Sunday proved me right.

This week, American astronauts returned to Earth. Their trip to the space station was the first manned launch from the U.S. in 10 years.

By NASA? No. Of course, not.

This space flight happened because government was not in charge.

An Obama administration committee had concluded that launching such a vehicle would take 12 years and cost $36 billion.

But this rocket was finished in half that time — for less than $1 billion (1/36th the predicted cost).

That’s because it was built by Elon Musk’s private company, Space X. He does things faster and cheaper because he spends his own money

All during the SpaceX mission the commentators discussed the numerous innovations that were built into the Falcon Rocket and the Dragon capsule.   These innovations were swiftly and cheaply brought about because SpaceX is a private company. The John Stossel article documents how and why this type of innovation was rarely produced by NASA, a government agency. 

When I read the following quote in the article I was completely surprised.

Fortunately, President Obama gave private companies permission to compete in space, saying, “We can’t keep doing the same old things as before.”

Competition then cut the cost of space travel to a fraction of what it was.

I had no idea that President Obama was the person that opened up the US space program to private sector competition.  It is something that was completely out of character for him considering how far to the political left he is.

This quote from a Milton Friedman interview that took place on the Phil Donahue show perfectly sums up the overwhelmingly positive benefits produced by the free market.   A record that has never come close to being matched by any government entity of any kind.

Well first of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.

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