FREE ENTERPRISE RUN AMUCK

Certain economic principles have driven our country since its early beginnings. Free enterprise, entrepreneurialism, capitalism, free markets, and such have been the rallying cry of businessmen. They advocate for less regulation and restriction with the adage that “the market” will regulate business practices. In my fair city, businessmen advocate for the liberty to engage in free enterprise and enlist local officials in their causes. Over the years, countless businessmen have gone before city fathers to request tax relief with the argument that their business creates jobs and expands the tax base. City fathers, and more increasingly, city mothers, fall prey to that tired argument. This has been going on for years. It’s what I call subsidized enterprise. Free enterprise basically means business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy. However, when business continues to rely on tax welfare then the enterprise is no longer free. Let me explain, government’s basic role is to provide for the common good, whatever that means. It provides goods and services for the common good and establishes a framework within which the society can live and work. It should not be in the habit of investing in business. Businessmen contend that if government waives fees and/or taxes that creates a business-friendly environment so that business can create jobs and improve the economy and therefore contribute to the public good. Government continues to fall for that trap. Business relies on investors to engage in commerce with the promise that the successful business will give investors a return on their investment. Here is where it falls apart because government has invested, but it does not get a direct return on investment. In fact, it continues to lose money on that investment. Over the years, government welfare programs have proliferated because people’s basic needs are not evenly met by the improved economy that business has created. This means that government invests money in business, via favorable tax treatment, and pays more money to feed the poor, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, treat the sick, corral the criminal, and so on. Businesses succeed with a combination of increased revenue and decreased expenses. They have two cost cutting measures in their sights, cut taxes and cut payroll. The first expense they cut is payroll, creating an underclass. These two measures constitute a double jeopardy for government because they increase government expenses and decrease government revenue. Even worse, the jobs that are created tend to be low paying retail and unskilled labor jobs that don’t come with job security, health insurance or retirement benefits. It is the working class that subsidizes both the enterprise and the under class. It is time for government to promote AND tax free enterprise. Everyone pays something for the common good, everyone. I don’t often quote the Gospel, but a couple of thoughts come to mind, to whom much is given, much is expected, and give to Cesar what is Cesar’s. In my enterpretation of these concepts, businessmen and those with wealth have a duty to pay their fair share. Do not equate fair share to equal share. Recent news stories have asked the question, is America broke? The answer is a resounding NO. All we have to do is to transfer the wealth back from the business and wealthy class to the government, thereby lessening the tax burden on the working class. America is not broke, it is immensely wealthy but everyone does not share in that wealth because free enterprise has run amuck. It has raided the wallets, bank accounts, and retirement portfolios of the working class and therefore not free enterprise at all, it is subsidized enterprise.