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What Will Save America?Sam Mathid The above question was posed recently by an internet investment commentator. The answer to his question begs another: 'what is it that once made America great?'. Surely if we could rediscover that then it would lead directly to the answer to the first question. From the Declaration of Independence in 1776 through to becoming the economic powerhouse of the world took around 130 years. Britain, under the philosophical influence of the brilliant Adam Smith, and with a vast empire, had pioneered the industrial revolution which enormously raised national wealth. Yet still by the turn of the 20th Century America was triumphant. However did that happen? It was not due to any specific invention as many inventions arose in all parts of the world which made little difference to the general prosperity. Nor was it due to any special attribute of the American individual for they came from all over Europe and generally arrived penniless and desperate. Nor could it have been due to the abundant natural resources of the country. If that was all there was to it then the Native Americans would have been living in condos and promoting Tupperware parties when they greeted the early settlers. What the Americans had in abundance was freedom... the freedom to flourish and prosper, or not. The human condition has never before or since been seen in full flower. Never ever, in any place or any time have human beings been as free to achieve their full potential as they were in America in the 19th century. There are exceptions to most statements of course and in this case it was the invaded and subjugated southern states. Most of the industrial base was in the north though and, apart from Lincoln's four year war, the northern states were a largely free economy. The word 'relative' has to be mentioned here, as of course even in those times politicians were active in creaming off their 'take'. It is a reasonable conjecture that without the spectacular results achieved in America, humankind would never have achieved its subsequent high general level of prosperity. Once general prosperity was achieved in America it raised the bar elsewhere. America gave meaning and hope to the lives of ordinary people throughout the world. Americans were freed of the burden of class and were free to succeed or fail on merit alone. They were free to prosper and free to starve, or, to put it another way, they were free to produce without penalty, or to not produce with penalty. Now? Well now we have reversed that situation. Today we have a political and banking elite who decide which class shall succeed and which shall fail. Innocent taxpayers who are already struggling to pay off their own mortgages are forced to bail out vastly rich multinational investment houses who lost money because they fraudulently sold dodgy financial packages to pension funds. Today you may produce with great penalty, or not produce with no penalty whatsoever. You are completely free to do whatever you want as long as you do not violate any of the innumerable regulations that govern your every single waking (and sleeping) moment. The government which used to be so far away that most people never met any of its representatives in the course of a lifetime, is now reading your emails and listening to your phone calls. There are lots of good ideas out there. A new and viable alternative energy, well that sounds like a good idea. Rebuild the industrial base, yep, that too. Finance vast infrastructure projects... hang on... we are talking about the problem, not the solution. The world is and always has been full of people who were convinced that they had a good idea and who then used that 'good idea' to justify telling other people how to live their lives. That is precisely why the world outside of America has never been a very prosperous or happy place. And now, at the start of the 21st century, it is, sadly, why America is no longer the beacon on the hill for the rest of the world. The one lesson that came out of the great experiment of the 19th century is that only individual freedom works. In America in the 19th century people knew a freedom that the world had never before witnessed. Prosperity rose at a rate unmatched in the world before or since. Today there is little to none of that freedom left, with an amount of prosperity to match... unless you are one of the elite that is. There is only one thing that will save America and that is the return of individual freedom. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Freedom is almost non-existent. No great idea, no matter how well implemented, can substitute for freedom. America once proved that. Soon it will be time for America to prove it again in a new era. *** The brilliant Professor Emeritus Antal Fekete is conducting a seminar in Canberra, Australia from the 11th to the 14th November this year. Meet and hear one of the giants of our age. Bookings for the seminar can be made through: I was privileged to attend Professor Fekete's seminar in Hungary in August of last year and to say that it was memorable is an understatement. Aug 8 , 2008 © Sam Mathid 2006-2008 321gold Ltd |
