When is free enterprise not free enterprise?

April 30, 11:53 AMLibertarian News ExaminerGarry Reed

News & Commentary from the liberterrain…

“As the voice of business, the Chamber’s core purpose is to fight for free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion, and governments around the world.” – About Us, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

There has long been a disconnect among differing ideologies on the definitions of “capitalism” and “corporatism,” and now free association seems to be in effect for the definition of “free enterprise.”

Free association, n. – “A spontaneous, logically unconstrained and undirected association of ideas, emotions, and feelings.” – Answers.com

Modern American libertarians define and enthusiastically embrace capitalism as the laissez-faire free market in which free people in a free society freely exchange whatever they want with one another.

Know your enemiesChamber of Commerce headquarters in
   Washington DC. The Chamber has outed itself by redefining
   “free enterprise” as “subsidized political prize.” (photo by
   AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons)

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More capitalism vs. corporatism:

• Underground Economy, the creature of corrupt government
  
• Libertarianism 101: What’s the libertarian position on Economics?
  
• Capitalism isn’t working?

The key word there, in case anyone missed it, is “free,” meaning unencumbered by government control, regulation, manipulation, restraint or subsidy.

Contrariwise, libertarians define and fervently reject corporatism as the illegitimate government-created Frankenstein monster birthed from the incestuous copulation of big government and big business, both of which eagerly embrace the looting of taxpayers for their personal gain.

Many libertarians thought they were safe with the definition of free enterprise.

Doesn’t free mean unconstrained? Doesn’t enterprise mean doing stuff?

Doesn’t the US Chamber of Commerce embrace the free market of capitalism when they say they “fight for free enterprise” while claiming to be “the voice of business?”

Maybe not.

Washington Examiner columnist Timothy P. Carney reported recently that, “once again,” libertarian-leaning Texas Rep Ron Paul failed to win the Chamber’s “Spirit of Enterprise Award” and received the lowest score of any Republican in the Chamber’s 2009 congressional scorecard.

Seems the good “Dr. No” went against the Chamber’s choices last year when he voted against:

• The “Solar Technology Roadmap Act,” which increased subsidies for money-losing solar energy technology,
• The “Travel Promotion Act,” which subsidizes the tourism industry with a new fee (re, “tax”) on international visitors, and
• Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, which subsidized nearly everything.

Which obviously means that the US Chamber of Commerce is in favor of subsidies and taxpayer handouts to businesses.

So now we can’t trust the definition of “free enterprise” and we can’t trust the US Chamber of Commerce to support freedom.

Free enterprise, defined by free association, can now apparently mean anything the Chamber wants it to mean.

Good to know who your enemies are.

 

Obamacare Blowback dumbfounds disbelieving Democrats – Garry Reed

News & Commentary from the liberterrain…

The Democrats, like the Neocons before them, seem genuinely baffled that people despise them.

They can’t comprehend that millions of Americans, forced to bend over for an unwanted Obamacare colonoscopy without so much as a dollop of petroleum jelly, might be a mite PO-ed.

The Broken Window Fallacy Reapplied: Democrats impose
   their economic “policies” on their subjects but cry, “Not in
   my back window!” (courtesy Ludwig von Mises Institute)

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More economic idiocy:

• Retelling the Tale of the Broken Window
  
• The middleclass czar
  
• The Great Depression comes to Cowtown
  
• Libertarianism 101: What’s the libertarian position on Economics?

A CBS News article reports people responding in kind, with an eye for an eye reply that implies, “What’s good for the unassuming citizen ought to be good for the elitist lawmaker.”

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO), found a coffin in front of his house meant to symbolize Obamacare-aborted babies (but according to many Republicans may symbolize Carnahan’s political future.)

This is nothing compared to the millions who believe they live in a land of property rights finding bulldozers in front of their homes with slick-talking politicians and their rich developer buddies shoving eminent domain documents in their faces.

What’s good for the law-abiding is good for the lawmaker.

Others who voted for Obamacare decry the threats filling their voicemail, mailboxes and inboxes.

But that’s nothing compared to the monumental mound of laws that threaten all citizens with fines, arrest, prosecution, imprisonment and even death by trigger-happy law enforcers for failing to conform to every whim of the law creators.

What’s good for the law-abiding is good for the lawmaker.

Yet the most ironic, and perhaps poetic, responses are the bricks thrown through Democrats’ windows.

This is the “Broken Window Fallacy” come to life.

This is the heart of Keynesian economic theory much embraced by modern collectivists such as the Obama brigades.

When a window is broken it puts a glass repairman to work. He can then afford a faux Rolex from a pawnbroker who buys a bassoon from a musician who buys a moose head from a taxidermist and so on, benefiting the entire community.

(Libertarians know it’s a fallacy but the left calls it a “policy.” Recommended reading: Retelling the Tale of the Broken Window.)

So Democrats should relish their busted windows. This is a grassroots jobs creation bill, a populist stimulus package, a spontaneous redistribution of wealth so beloved by Comrade Obama during his Hope and Change campaign.

As the folks at Broken Window Watch put it, “Almost every economic policy proposed by Congress is some variant of the Broken Window Fallacy.”

What’s good for the law-abiding is good for the lawmaker.