A Free Economy Is The Surest Path To Prosperity

We have all learned throughout history how the totalitarian evils of socialism destroy freedom and prosperity.

We are endowed by our Creator “with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Those words from the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, are the very heart and soul of the American Idea. God has endowed us with natural rights of freedom, and following those principles over the past nearly 250 years has made America the greatest country in the history of history.

Then there’s the idea of socialism that Karl Marx laid out in “Das Kapital,” written in 1867, which does not believe in God, individual rights, or freedom. Socialism, or Marxism, has failed utterly whenever and wherever it has been tried.

Free-market capitalism is a triumph of human power. Socialism believes in state, or government, power. The ideological battle is totalitarianism versus freedom. A state-run economy versus a market-run economy.

Friedrich Hayek wrote that socialism is always totalitarianism. A centrally planned economy versus a free-enterprise economy. As Ludwig von Mises put it, human action versus government action.

Socialism denies self-reliance, denies civil liberties, argues for a class struggle between workers and employers, and believes that all people should somehow be equal, whatever that really means. The problem with socialism is that it always fails to deliver the goods. Literally.

Show me a socialist economy like that of the Soviet Union or today's China, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and others, and I'll show you an impoverished and sinking economy. Even China, which prospered under market reforms between 1980 and 2000, has since relapsed into more and more state control. Sure enough, its economy has faltered badly in recent years.

Milton Friedman in his famous book “Capitalism and Freedom” argued, “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.” Thomas Sowell tells us that “socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous.”

Hayek argued that if socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists. Margaret Thatcher years ago asserted that the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.

My former boss, Ronald Reagan, said, “The most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I'm here to help you.’”

We have all learned throughout history how the totalitarian evils of socialism destroy freedom and prosperity. Free markets don’t exist under socialism.

It is the free market that is by far the most efficient mechanism to allocate resources for employees, producers, investors, and entrepreneurs operating inside a free economy. That is why free-market capitalism has generated the most prosperous economic conditions for all classes of individuals.

Free markets are color blind, gender blind, blind to religions and ethnicity. Healthy free-market economies keep tax rates low, minimize regulatory burdens, and limit government power by restraining federal spending.

The free market model provides incentives and motivations for work, production, and investment. The very dignity of work is the heart and soul of a successful, free economy. The state cannot tell us where to work, how to work, how much to get paid, or other central planning dictates.

A free economy, bound by the rule of law in a free society, is probably the greatest theory to emerge in all of history. Its success in bringing people out of poverty and allowing them to climb the ladder of opportunity has changed the world.

Remember, a free economy in a true democracy abides by the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the freedom to choose in every aspect of our lives. Lately, however, America has been drifting toward socialism, to use economist Kevin Hasset's phrase.

Nowadays, most socialists no longer attempt the old Joseph Stalin approach, of taking over the means of production. Instead, to borrow from Steve Forbes’s construct, modern socialists seek to control the economy through a central planning, regulatory state.

A perfect example is President Biden’s war against fossil fuels. His radical central planners use extreme and unproven environmental standards to stop drilling, fracking, piplelining, and building new LNG terminals or gasoline refineries. This is modern socialism. This is dictatorial central planning.

Or look at the government's response to Covid: Closing down schools, businesses, and entire cities and states without any scientific proof of its effectiveness. This is government power and statism at its worst.

Look at regulatory agencies like the SEC, the FTC, and the Federal Reserve, all moving to take over large chunks of our economy through the regulatory state. If America is to prosper in the years ahead, as it must, this drift toward socialism must be reversed.

Let me add that modern Marxism is trying to move us toward a cultural transformation. Today’s socialists oppose organized religion, parental guidance in the education system, and even the family unit itself. They are trying to rewrite American history.

Today's cultural marxists seek class warfare based on race, ethnicity, and gender. They oppose free speech. They are trying to control the internet in order to censor opposing viewpoints. Political correctness and identity politics are their new tool to destroy the American Idea.

This cultural socialism also must be reversed. I put my cards on the table face up right now. I have spent my entire professional career fighting for freedom, free markets, capitalism, and the prosperity that these values bring. That is my mission. I hope readers will carefully consider our point of view. The future of this great nation is at stake.

Larry Kudlow was the Director of the National Economic Council under President Trump from 2018-2021. His Fox Business show "Kudlow" airs at 4 p.m &. and his radio show airs on 770 ABC from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

From Larry Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.