This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Michael Moore, Program Specialist for the John Locke Foundation.
How do you grow liberty? Liberty is a little different then growing flowers or vegetables in your garden, but in many ways producing liberty is a lot like growing blue ribbon prize-winning plants. It takes time and a clear of vision of what your final product will look like. Why is there always hope in America that no matter where we come from or how rough our past, we all have the same opportunity to seek out our God-Given talents and embark on our own path to liberty? I have to say I think the answer cannot be found in any of the candidates running for office in 2008, but rather in two important cornerstones of this Republic: the clear definition of private property and guidance from the Rule of Law.
In his recent book, The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World’s Largest Private Company, Charles G. Koch talks about how holding to some basic core principles helped to build Koch Industries. While success and prosperity are not guaranteed, they are much more likely to be produced when private property rights are protected and the rule of law is followed. Mr. Koch writes, “Countries that clearly define and protect individual property rights stimulate investment and growth. Those that threaten and confiscate property lose capital and decline.” When we as individuals have a clear understanding of how to allocate our resources, we have an incentive to use our resources in a way to create wealth by providing for needs in the marketplace or not to do anything at all.
The namesake of this organization, John Locke, promoted the rule of law heavily. Locke saw the governments of Europe changing laws at will, and even convicting people of crimes without telling them what their charges were. A small entrepreneur in London, whom Locke observed producing inexpensive soap available to average Englishmen, was shut down by the king. The entrepreneur’s main competition was a dominant soap maker who was an ally of the king. Do you think that entrepreneurs love an atmosphere in which the production of a new idea or invention might result in imprisonment? Of course not. It would be a terrible atmosphere to create ideas and wealth.
Over the last 230 years the United States has produced an overall favorable atmosphere for entrepreneurship and for the creation of new ideas and inventions because of the opportunity of individual liberty. It seems that many local governments, many here in North Carolina, have started down a path to end the abundance of liberty.
For example, Carrboro’s town government started in 1998 to ban drive-through restaurants for the sake of preserving the town’s identity. This is a shame, since an individual could exercise his liberty by leasing property to McDonald’s or Wendy’s to make extra income. Just last month, the Southwestern Commission, the council of local governments in seven western counties, had a conference to try to jump-start the land-use regulation process in western North Carolina. The conference had a nice title, Mountain Landscapes, but it might lead to strong restrictions on the growth of the WNC housing market.
This spring the City of Raleigh thought it would be good policy to outlaw new garbage disposals. If you replaced your old disposal, you would be charged with a $25,000 fine. Yes, all these policy proposals are from here in North Carolina, which shows why liberty is worth standing up for and preserving.
We as citizens in the United States must understand that we are extremely blessed to live in a country where in most places private property and the rule of law are protected. When people live under the whims of dictators and tyranny they fail to be creative and produce wealth, which leads to a loss of prosperity. So the next time you hear a young person harping on how unfair the American capitalist system is, just remind them about the source of all of the modern technologies they are fortunate to have. That source usually involves entrepreneurs and innovators who are always thinking of new ways to help society with a new product.