The Cause of Liberty The Cause of LibertyIf you haven’t heard, April 23rd is Tax Freedom Day. Up until Tax Freedom Day, everything you’ve earned has gone to the government. That’s the bad news. The good news is that this video is funny. Cheer up, you have eight more months to earn money for your own bills!
If anyone ever tries to tell you that the economy is driven by consumer spending, I have one piece of advice–RUN! This one fallacy alone has arguably caused more damage to our nation than any other, and a person who believes it is either deceived, or is using it to be deceptive, or both.
I walked out of an investing seminar recently because the speaker used this fallacy–that consumer spending is the basis of the economy–as a foundational argument for his thesis. His thesis was that America is headed toward a serious economic downturn based on future reduction of consumer spending, and that if we want to survive the rough times ahead then we need to amass as much money as possible, because money is what will save us.
America faces serious economic challenges. We all know that socialism means to take from the rich to give to the poor. But our nation is faced with a more complex problem than this customary type of wealth redistribution. Our problem is what I refer to as reverse socialism. If we wish our nation to be free for future generations then We the People must fix this problem.
Free enterprise is, among other things, a legal structure that treats all individuals and business entities equally before the law. The proper role of a free enterprise-promoting government is to simply protect unalienable rights–not to favor one man over another through benefits and entitlements.
Our national political debate has become convoluted between two sides with equally flawed premises and goals. The liberals want
You are voting with every dollar that you spend; a dollar spent on the cheapest, lowest quality products is a vote for mediocrity. A dollar spent on what you perceive as true value is a vote for value and quality. We literally contribute to the level and quality of value in the world by what we commit our dollars to.
Every idea and action has a consequence. We must raise our conscious awareness of this fact if we are to create the world that we want our children and great-grandchildren to enjoy. Selfish people want to justify their harmful actions through the belief that they can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t affect others. But whether we want to accept it or not, no man is an island, and we can never take any action or think any thought that does not in some way affect the fabric of the whole of humanity. Use your dollars to vote for an ideal world.
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What is the definition of price? What does cost mean? Are the two the same?
Many economic mistakes on a macro level are made by thinking that price and cost are the same. The two are fundamentally different, and to focus on one while ignoring the other can prevent us from prospering. Price is what we pay for an item with currency. Cost is the often unseen and intangible long-term effects and results of choosing one price over another. For example, many people today complain about the high price of gas. But can you even begin to calculate the cost if you choose not to pay that price? What would happen to your finances if you decided to ride a bike everywhere you went because you thought the price of gas was too high?
Increase your ability to produce by looking past price and calculating the cost of doing or not doing anything. For example, if you don’t want to attend a valuable seminar because the price is $1,000, then ask yourself what the cost will be to your life if you don’t attend. Most of us would drastically change our daily decisions if we cultivated the habit of identifying the unseen costs of our choices. Prosperous people look at the whole picture in any exchange and are more concerned with cost than price.
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How does exchange occur? How does a free market work without regulation?
We only exchange when others have something that we value more than what we have. If I trade $10 for a book, that book is worth MORE than $10 to me; otherwise I would have no reason to make the exchange. And the person who has the book values my $10 more than his book.
In a free market, the final sales price of any object is always an amount that the seller and the buyer both disagree that the object is worth. Socialists teach that free markets are “chaotic” and that chaos is destructive. But as we see, exchange can only occur in an atmosphere of disagreement. Socialists completely misunderstand the nature of free market “chaos.” Central economic planning, in an effort to rid the market of chaos, completely shuts down our ability to obtain the things that we value.
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Does the science of economics have real application in your life, or does it seem like a topic reserved for college professors and “experts?”
The word economics comes from the Greek words oikos (pronounced ee kos) meaning home or house, and nomos, meaning name, organization, or management. To the Greeks, an “oikonomos” is a manager of a home. Economics isn’t about charts, graphs, interest rates, and index funds. It’s about what you do on a daily basis to create a profitable, thriving, and sustainable home life. It’s about learning to create value for your family. An oikonomos is a producer in his or her own home before and above all else.
The science of economics, then, is much closer to home that you may have thought. Be a wise and productive steward of your home and that will be reflected in society. Be the economist in your life.
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