Dear Editor:
Have you ever wondered why some countries are wealthy and others are destitute? I’ve said it is differences in rule of law, and others say natural resources. Both are wrong.
Heritage.org ranked 179 countries on economic freedom. Hong Kong (owned by Red China) is first, and all of the top 4 are in the Asia-South Pacific region. Those with the most economic freedom (capitalism) are also the wealthiest.
At the bottom of the list are Cuba and North Korea. Both are communist and very poor. Countries with socialism, the slow boat to communist poverty, are in the middle. Margaret Thatcher said “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”, hence poverty. We saw that happen in the old Soviet Union and now Greece. Socialism consumes wealth with its huge inefficient bureaucracies, and smothers private wealth creation with its anti-capitalist high taxes and crushing regulation. Socialism claims to help the poor, but it kills their upward mobility, creating a permanent underclass.
The U.S. taught the world how to be free. Our economic freedom produced upward mobility and prosperity that amazed the world. Now we have slipped to #8 in economic freedom. Concurrently, few expect their kids to be as successful as themselves. Business owners are not free to make the simplest decisions on employee benefits, smoking, and minimum wages based on ones productivity.
Some government is a necessary evil to prevent anarchy. But the nature of all governments is to grow in size and control of the people and business. Only informed voters can stop that natural progression toward less freedom and wealth when our politicians routinely ignore the Constitution.
We can learn from Hong Kong and our founding documents how to regain our former level of economic freedom and wealth. It starts with shrinking the Fed’s size and control, shifting from federal to local decision making, and making freedom legal again.
Gary Shaffer
Ursa, IL 62376
