The Beauty Of American Capitalism

The beauty of American Capitalism is that, as an American, you have the freedom to chart your own course, be your own master, start a business, or quit your job if you're dissatisfied, and earn a living doing something you love.

By the way, what I wrote above is the core argument in favor of American Capitalism. It is referred to as the "American Dream." It is what the "Free Enterprise" system is about. Americans have the individual autonomy, economic opportunity, and personal freedom associated with a market-based economy.

Individual autonomy is our capacity and right, as free persons, to make informed, uncoerced decisions about our own lives, actions, and how we live, free from external control or undue interference. Our individual autonomy is s to make our own to act according to our own values, motives, and moral reasoning.

Using our moral compass, autonomy means we have the right to self-determination -- our ability to act, think, and make decisions based on our independent values, interests, what motivates us as individuals, what drives our internal desires, and what determines our personal goals. We do this independently and distinct from any group, race, or religion. It's what pushes us as individuals to stand out from the crowd.

As Americans, as individuals, we place a high value on our self-reliance, our individual rights, our independence, and our personal freedoms to act, think, to move about freely, to maintain a sense of privacy, and to speak our mind and express ourselves without interference or oppression -- especially from the government. These are essential liberties that allow us to make our own personal choices.

And frankly, when exercised responsibly, our freedoms shouldn't infringe upon the rights of others. That's an extremely important aspect of being a free people. Being responsible for respecting others' rights while exercising our freedoms means that, as Americans, we should recognize that our personal freedoms are not absolute and are balanced against the rights of others and the general welfare of the community.

Having personal liberty is all about us having the rights to own property, to free speech, to bear arms, to practice our religion, to hold conscience-based beliefs, to a private life free from surveillance or unreasonable search and seizure, to move where we please, change our locations if we feel like it, enjoy personal safety, assemble and associate with who we please, to receive equality before the law, receive a secure a fair trial, all without government control are the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans.

These rights are considered essential for maintaining individual dignity and preventing tyranny in a democratic society. In reality, in America, we depend on our government to honor the Bill of Rights, which limits its power and safeguards our individual autonomy. The right to act without being constrained by others or the government allows us to shape our own lives and make choices that are true to our personal values and identity. It allows us to set goals and make decisions about personal matters without interference. This concept of being responsible, maintaining personal privacy, living with dignity, and having the right to make our own choices is about personal freedom.

Personal freedom in a market-based economy is defined by the ability of individuals and businesses to make economic decisions—such as what to produce, buy, or sell—without coercion, excessive government regulation, or restrictions. Our system, often referred to as "Free Enterprise," is driven by voluntary exchange and private ownership, allowing us to pursue our self-interest and financial well-being.

A market-based economy gives us the personal freedom to engage in transactions between buyers and sellers because it benefits both parties without forcing participation. Consumers are free to spend their income in the best way to satisfy their needs and wants. They decide which products succeed or fail in the market. Entrepreneurs have the liberty to obtain resources, start businesses, and sell products of their choice in a market of their choice. Individuals have the right to own, use, and dispose of their property and assets as they wish.

As for having what is known as "Occupational Freedom" in a free society? Occupational freedom is the ability of workers to choose their own training, jobs, and employers. Workers can act in their own self-interest, which unintentionally drives efficiency and social good up. It happens because our economy is guided by supply and demand rather than the central planning of an authoritarian government, as in Socialist and Communist governments.

Competition acts as a regulator in a free-market economy. Competition limits the power of individual economic agents, forcing businesses to offer better quality and lower prices. By limiting government intervention, American capitalism limits the government's role of enforcing contracts, protecting property rights, and maintaining a legal framework for fair play. Frankly, the result of our free-market system gives Americans the economic freedom necessary for political freedom by separating economic power from the government's desire to control.

While market economies are often associated with high levels of personal liberty, they can also lead to income disparities, and in practice, most operate as "mixed economies" with varying degrees of government regulation. Of course, more government regulations mean more government control.

Let's all understand the reality of American industry. Whether it's steel mills or family farms, government regulations are not usually designed to hamper or impede progress. I'm sure most regulations are created with good intentions, not just as money-makers for the government. But it's a fact of life that extensive government regulations are usually harmful to the economy. Government regulations interfere with and limit production, stifle innovation, increase harmful compliance costs, contribute to higher business bankruptcies, and, intentionally or not, can kill economic growth.

So yes, personal freedom in a market-based economy is defined by our ability, as individuals and business owners, to make economic decisions, such as what to produce, what to buy, and what to sell. All, while doing that without coercion, excessive government regulation, or restriction. It's driven by voluntary exchange and private ownership, allowing us to pursue our self-interest and care for our financial well-being.

It's capitalism based on individual rights and voluntary transactions. And yes, it provides us with the freedom to change careers, opt out and find another career path, negotiate with a boss for better wages and benefits, or tell a boss to go kick rocks while we look for another job and better opportunities, or start our own business. It's called freedom.

We are free to decide how we want to earn a living. We are flexible and can look for another job while we already have one, which I've always believed is the smartest route before quitting a job. Or we can simply quit without having a job to take its place, which I've never seen as very smart. The point is that, in our economic system, as workers, we have the power and the freedom to quit if we choose.

The only things holding us back from quitting are personal and financial factors. Those factors are ensuring you have income to survive, another job to keep working, and, in some cases, the ability to keep benefits—like health insurance. If someone wants to quit a job, especially one where you know you can get paid more if you leave, it's important to make sure they do it correctly, not just quit.

Personal freedom means that you can quit a job, plan to quit, or maybe try to open your own business and be your own boss. Critics of American Capitalism say that we don't have a choice and that we are always "exploited by the rich." That's bullshit because we always have a choice.

They say we are "not truly free because our choices are either starvation or homelessness. Believe it or not, this defeatist attitude, an attitude that's totally un-American, is described as a "work for a wage or you starve" scenario. Those are the same people who believe wholeheartedly in the ideal of Communism, which is slavery to the government, but can't see that free people have the legal right to quit and do so all the time.

Communist supporters act as though people don't quit their jobs and are somehow chained to machinery for life. That's crap. Americans quit their jobs all the time. Sometimes they quit at a moment's notice over things that many employers may not have seen coming. Sometimes, they quit a job properly and give notice that they are leaving. Sometimes they quit on good terms, and employers ask them back. Sometimes they quit, and employers are glad to see them go.

If a person wants to quit, we don't have to answer to the government and ask for permission to start a new job, or start our own business. We can just do it. Of course, my advice is that if someone wants to quit, then they need to plan it out and do it correctly. Doing it correctly means looking at your family obligations and debt, evaluating your needs, and considering whether you can take a pay cut during a transition, or if you need to find a job that pays more to stop struggling.

Above all else, you have to look at your marketable skills. That's the key to finding a better job than you have. And yes, I've known all sorts of great folks who followed their dreams of being better at what they do. I've known folks who quit their jobs after taking classes at a local community college to better themselves. I've known people who have gone back to school while still working to prepare for promotions within their organizations. I've known guys who couldn't handle the seasonal work and long layoffs in construction work and moved on to do other things.

What do they all have in common? First, they had the personal freedom to do that. Second, their dissatisfaction with their present employment motivated them to better themselves. They bettered their lives by furthering their education for better positions and promotions at their jobs, by switching trades, by obtaining certifications and degrees, and by doing all sorts of other things to increase their overall marketability, all to better their lives. And yes, that's part of the beauty of American Capitalism.

The American capitalist system is founded on the principles of individual liberty, private property rights, and free-market enterprise, allowing for personal initiative, innovation, and competition. It emphasizes voluntary exchange, limited government intervention, and the pursuit of self-interest to drive economic growth and individual opportunity. Capitalism protects personal freedoms, including the right to own property, enter into contracts, and make economic choices without government coercion. Our system rewards innovation, hard work, and risk-taking, while also fostering an environment where individuals can build businesses and personal wealth. We have a free-market economy that's driven by supply, demand, and competition, rather than government direction.

America's moral foundation stems from the fact that American Capitalism is the only economic system that fully respects individual rights while encouraging personal responsibility. We encourage private ownership. We support those who launch businesses and pursue new ideas. We like and encourage innovation, with entrepreneurs playing a critical role in developing new products, improving efficiency, and creating jobs. It's a system that allows Americans to choose our own careers and pursue economic goals. Let's be clear on this: we have the freedom and ability to pivot, start a business, or change jobs, all for personal fulfillment.

The "American Dream" mentality is at the heart of our culture. It's all about valuing self-reliance and the freedom to "chart our own course". We can achieve success through hard work. We can "Be Our Own Boss." And yes, many of us are motivated by the desire to be our own boss and have greater flexibility in our work-life. Small business ownership is seen as one of the primary ways for Americans to exercise individual autonomy. 

We exercise our freedoms through independent decision-making in our personal lives, including our career choices, how we live, how we raise our children, which church we attend, and the relationships we have. It's all part of our ability as a free people to navigate our lives as we see fit. 

Americanism is all about self-directed behavior supported by exercising our Constitutional rights — such as freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the right to bear arms — which allow self-expression and control over our lives.

Communists refuse to accept or understand any of this because they see freedom as something that people should not have. Communists will try to get you to believe that finding a better job may not be feasible, even though we all know it's always an option in life. They will try to make you believe that our freedom to quit a job is a myth. The fact is, most of the Communists who come up with that crap have never left school.

The people who support Communism aren't very bright. And yes, they seem to have a few things in common. Like Karl Marx, whose radical leftist beliefs made him "unemployable," many of the Communists today who talk about how great Communism is have never had jobs. Worse, many of them are still going through Communist Indoctrination in college, while getting their tuition paid by someone else.

Above all else, it is obvious that Communists have never lived in the real world. We know this from their worn-out rhetoric. They mistakenly think American workers are being treated in the same way that Soviet Communists treated their workers -- which was like slave labor forced to do collective work -- tied to their jobs without the freedom to choose a better life.

Communists refuse to understand that American Freedom means that we are free to work wherever we want to work to prosper and achieve whatever we want in our lives. They don't realize that American workers can quit anytime they want to -- if they think doing so will improve their lives. Communists love government control and don't realize that our ability to leave a job for any reason is a cornerstone of personal liberty. Something that does not exist in the Communist world.

Tom Correa