In 1938, historian W. E. Woodward made a profound observation about the state of society throughout history: “Liberty implies responsibility, and the vast majority of mankind has always hated responsibility worse than death. So in all ages, men have run around holding liberty in their hands, holding it out before them as one holds a golden vessel, offering it to anyone who possesses enough vulgar enterprise to take it away from them.”

A Mandate from the People?

Scott Brown, the winner of the Massachusetts Senate seat of the late Teddy Kennedy, is one of a short but growing list of Republicans who weren’t supposed to win. It appears to some political fortune tellers that a backlash is growing to a hyperactive Democratic agenda of the prior year. Could it possibly be a “mandate from the people?”

A free market can be described as one where every individual is free to make decisions about what is best for himself or herself based on his or her circumstances and assumptions. In that limited sense, there is only a free market. Human nature and the reality of economics and human interaction dictate that every action a person takes is the result of a free choice among given alternatives.

America has been a driver of technology and innovation for most of it’s history. Capitalism and free markets nurtured that innovation and brought about the incredible increase in prosperity and well being of this country.

When ordinary people in business fail, they lose money and go out of business, or they get fired. Though it is not good for the individual or business involved, it actually makes way for more productive organizations to succeed and to give better service to the public. In that sense, the failure can lead to positive results.

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. On the Animal Farm, the metaphor used by George Orwell to describe developments in the former Soviet Union, equality was the rallying cry, the ideal. The reality was very different there, as with every egalitarian society. Everyone is equal except for the ruling elite, those who make the rules, who hand out the goodies and the favors, who benefit from forcing equality on others.

My offspring have all graduated from watching children’s cartoons. I haven’t watched them in a long time. I am not much of a television of movie person, but the Disney shows seemed entertaining and generally wholesome.

It is proverbial that those who don’t learn the lessons of past mistakes are bound to repeat them. That has always been true, and it isn’t any truer than in these modern days. We are on the edge of some potentially catastrophic events in the history of our country. It is not the first time we have been here, and it will probably not be the last, because we will more than likely take the wrong lessons again.

June 5th is the birthday of John Maynard Keynes, a brilliant economist whose influential work during the 1930’s changed the course of history. He has had a great deal of influence on generations of economists, including advisers to our current president and congress. It’s too bad he was wrong in virtually all of his innovations.

Immigration is a lightening rod topic. It is an emotional issue and both sides seem to raise valid arguments in support of their views. It is also a case where cloudy thinking underlies many of the assumptions which are the source of the conflict.