At Odds With Freedom | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The United States of America has a beautiful and amazing history. Our success has been the catalyst that set most of the world free. It is our freedom that has attracted intelligent and creative people from around the world in pursuit of their dreams. Our tremendous success is not a result of some genetic trait or an evil conspiracy. Our success is the result of freedom - economic, political, and civil liberties. We are not by any means perfect and we have more recently developed some serious problems. These problems are not because freedom has suddenly become a bad thing, they are a result of bad things encroaching on our freedoms.

    It has been suggested that greed is at the root of many of our problems. I would agree that greed can be a problem, but if we are going to determine how greed is a problem we must know exactly what greed is and how to identify it. Greed is defined by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed.” In my opinion this is a rather vague and subjective definition. How exactly does one determine what is “selfish” or what is “needed” and at what point is something considered “excessive?” If we accept this definition then everyone in the world is greedy all of the time. Do you desire more food, water, and shelter than you actually need to survive? Or should we only desire the quantities of food, water, and shelter that we need to be healthy? Who determines what is healthy? I personally would be healthier if I had a gym in my house.

    You show me a place in this world where there is no greed by the Merriam-Webster definition and I will show you a place where there is no life at all. We all desire something more. These desires are ingrained in us and in all of life; they are almost as necessary to the existence of life as water. If life did not strive to get ahead during the good times, then the bad times would have wiped the earth clean of all life long ago. A drive for something more, the drive for meaning and happiness and success is not greed. Acts of greed do not lead people to success and fulfillment. I would like to suggest that “greed” is more accurately defined as the desire for something unearned with no regard for the cost or with whom it lays. Notice, I have not changed the meaning of the word, I have simply defined it in a more objective manner that correctly aligns the definition with the feelings that people attach to the word. By this definition it becomes obvious that theft, rape, murder, and most forms of deception could be considered acts of greed. Any desire for anything that may threaten the life, liberty, or property of another is greed.

    Hopefully most of us are not guilty of theft, rape, or murder, but on some level we are all still greedy. Everyone has told a lie for one reason or another and at some point we have all had a desire for something we didn’t deserve. Sometimes we are even greedy in a way that our ignorance, jealousy, or arrogance has blinded us to. Now, if you are sitting in front of a computer or holding your smart phone or laptop somewhere reading this article and thinking, “I am not greedy, ignorant, jealous, or arrogant,” then I would like for you to smile and pat yourself on the back because you are all of these. I hope you will forgive the arrogant nature of that statement while I explain just what I mean. If a person says he or she is not ignorant, they are either ignorant of the fact that ignorance is a relative condition that can apply to specific things, or they may simply be blind to their own ignorance because of their arrogance. To want credit for being above these conditions or states of mind is most certainly greedy, because no human is. And it also suggests that the person would be jealous of anyone who is actually less guilty of these things than they are. Because these states are simply a part of the human condition anyone who would claim to be above them would have to be extremely arrogant.

    Now if you are still reading and you can accept that you are human then let’s continue. Where is there a problem with people trying to get something for nothing no matter the cost? Are businesses greedy because they offer you products and services in exchange for money? Every time a purchase is made both sides are essentially agreeing that greed is not a factor in this transaction. You agree that the product or service is worth more to you than the money you are giving up because you believe that it will help you in some way, and you do not have the knowledge, time, or means to produce the thing you are buying. And at the same time the company accepts your money because it is worth more to them than the product or service they are providing.

    Can anyone, provided that they stay within the law, force you to buy what they are selling? The answer is no. You can be convinced to buy a product and you can be sold on its benefits, but in the end, the decision to buy still rests entirely on your shoulders. It is also your responsibility to either do your research and know everything there is to know about the product or service you are purchasing, or be willing to accept the risks that go along with being uninformed before you make a purchase. Can a business in a free market system make money off of the ignorance of others? Sure. But do not forget that humans are pack animals and we all naturally want to help one another. So those that take advantage of others are the exception and not the rule and their time spent near the top, if at all, is always limited. Do our politicians and elected officials take advantage of the ignorance of others? Absolutely! The difference is that with the government there is no return policy, and no competitor that will provide you with something better.

    I would like to suggest to you, that just maybe, the majority of businesses are very generous. Consider for a moment that we can all go to Wal-Mart and get to enjoy a nice walk through a massive, well lit, and air conditioned building where we can look at everything that is being sold. We can pick things up off the shelves, hold them, read the packaging and if you have a smart phone you can read even more about the product online with the free wireless internet connection that Wal-Mart provides. We can all go sit in Barnes and Noble and read all day while drinking coffee and eating a snack. You can even Google that word you didn’t know using the free internet provided there too. Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the world because they have pioneered the gadgets that allow us to have access to our music and other forms of media anywhere. And when was the last time Google sent you a bill for searching the internet or for hosting your free email account? All of these companies invested time and money to provide you with something for free with the hope that, in the end, people would have a favorable opinion of them and want to purchase their products and services.

    So where IS greed a problem for this country? Greed plagues our government officials who want more power and control because their arrogance leads them to believe that they are better suited to run your life than you are. And please, do not get me wrong, I honestly believe that most of our politicians have good intentions, but an overwhelming majority of people do, so intentions do not matter. Let’s say the government revamps a few old programs and changes a few rules and uses hundreds of billions of dollars of tax payer money to buy securities to give banks incentive to lend money to people who, in a free market, would never qualify for a loan. The intentions of our government officials is good, they simply want to help people get access to the money necessary to buy the things they want and need. But ultimately their plan leads to the destruction of millions of jobs, retirement plans, and the wealth of millions of honest, hard working people. Do intentions matter when the results look like that? Are the things that were done any less evil because the people who did them were ignorant of the effects their plan would have on supply and demand? F. A. Hayek a world renowned economist said, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they know about what they imagine they can design.” This statement applies perfectly to the financial crisis, which we have still not fully recovered from, and to all of the stimulus and new legislation that is being passed.

    Greed and jealousy are problems when half of our country would like to see one group taxed more. When a portion of the country would like entitlements increased despite the fact that the cost of entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment, and Welfare are all ballooning out of control. None of these programs were ever meant to exist in this country; they are like parasites sucking the life out of success and productivity. We are punishing production and rewarding laziness. Do not let your arrogance trap you into thinking that there are people in this world who are not as smart or capable of caring for themselves as you are. There are many uneducated people who have no faith in themselves and their abilities, but they are no less able to care for themselves than anyone else. Giving them money does not help them learn to be successful; it only eliminates the very struggle that would teach them the things they need to know. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson along with many of our other founding fathers have, in all of their great wisdom, warned against entitlements.

    “I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” – Ben Franklin

    “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” – Thomas Jefferson

    This wisdom seems to be all but completely lost on the people of this country because our schools no longer teach students about our founding fathers. The Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet, there are people who believe and would like for you to believe that our founders were racists. The only reason slavery was not abolished at the founding of these United States was because the south would not have joined the union. Without all of the colonies working together, declaring independence would have been impossible. In 1787 Ben Franklin was appointed honorary president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Those most influential in creating the foundation of this country were some of the most intelligent, honest, and just men that this country has ever known. Mountains of success can only stand on a solid foundation.

    The intention behind our entitlement programs is good, but the results are not. Poverty rates were on a steady decline until the creation of welfare, which was touted to be a plan that would eliminate poverty all together. Now our government pays to people to end marriages, and to have more children. In 1966 when Medicare was created it cost $3 billion and the CBO projected that by 1990 it would only cost $12 billion, however, in 1990 it actually cost the country $107 billion. Today spending on Medicare is $468 billion. The government will spend $3.6 trillion this year, or 24% of GDP, and 55% of that money will be spent on entitlements. Social Security is now taking in less money than it is giving out and the younger generations are paying in with little to no promise for any return on their investment. Yet, the young professionals in this country are forced to continue contributing their hard earned money in order to subsidize their grandparents and parents generations. Nelson Mandela said “There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.” Rather than letting each generation stand on the shoulders of the next we are telling people they don’t need to save or plan for the future and then forcing the younger generations to support those who came before them, those who have had a lifetime to earn and save.

    Ask yourself, what reason could government officials possibly have to cap pay? Why would the amount of money made by someone working for a private firm concern our elected officials? It seems to me as though they believe that one person can only succeed at the expense of another. I believe it is this ignorance coupled with jealousy that leads to these sorts of regulations and they serve no one. It amazes me how the actions taken by the people in power who believe that we live in a dog eat dog world, create the very evils that they so strongly believe are a problem. Those who focus all of their efforts on eliminating corruption by creating new regulatory agencies and by appointing people to micro manage and oversee everything actually create and breed corruption on all new levels. Rather than focusing on creating more good in the world they focus on eliminating all the bad. Their focus is on destruction not creation, and I believe that is a big mistake.