Summary of Monthly Market Commentary for August 2016

When People begin to fear the Government and its Tentacles, Tyranny is not far away

Today, I want to share with my readers an article which shows that there are problems in a social system to which there are no clear cut answers.

The article describes a “silly” dispute between Barronelle Stutzman and Rob Ingersoll. Silly, because it would have been easy for the parties to settle the dispute amicably through the acceptance of each party’s point of view – in simple English through some tolerance. But no, the state attorney general’s office and the ACLU had to get involved in what I consider to be a witch-hunt against Mrs. Stutzman, and accusing her of discrimination. Remember that already Montesquieu observed in The Spirit of the Laws that, “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.”

I am sure the majority of my readers will disagree with my view but I shall explain my opinion as clearly as I can.

Capitalism and free markets are not fair (in fact, capitalism is a cruel system in numerous ways), but it is a far fairer system (not crony capitalism) than all the other forms of organizing economic and social life, and in particular vastly superior to socialism, communism, and the arbitrary command economy.

Western democracies had (like socialism and communism) the noble idea of creating a fair society [Albert Camus: “The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants”], but it is now ending up with system that is characterized by far more injustices and abuses by bureaucrats, powerful corporations and government officials.

I understand if some of my readers may not have the time to peruse the article and the issues involved. Fine, but I can assure my readers that sooner or later they will be confronted with similar problems as Mrs. Stutzman encountered.