Is the Free-Market Really About Freedom?

“Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.” ~Bertrand Russell 

          Capitalism is defined as an economic and political system characterized by a free market for goods and services, and private control of production and consumption (1). It has long been believed that the Capitalist system is the key to reaching the “American Dream.” For many years, it even seemed to work. Americans thrived in a nation where a little hard work kept families safe, happy, and healthy. Over the past 3 decades, however, this dream has become nearly impossible to reach. America’s free-market obsession has led to severe inequality between the rich and the other 98 percent of American people.

          One way the free-market has caused such inequality is with new legislation that favors the wealthy over the average worker. During the reign of George W. Bush, massive tax cuts were given to the richest Americans, placing most of the tax burden on the poor and middle-class. To the dismay of all but the elite, these cuts still exist and still cause massive damage to households and small businesses all across the nation. In 2010, almost immediately after the House of Representatives swore in its new freshmen Republican majority, the Citizens United ruling was passed. This bill gave corporations “personhood” status, meaning they could now filter an unregulated amount of funds into elections, which basically stripped power from voters.

          Inequality in this free-market society is also being fueled as Wall Street threatens to obliterate the rights of Americans with the faulty promise of “individual liberty” in order to control society’s assets. Corporate recruiters have become a virus in colleges. They show up to aggressively snatch the youth right out of high school and undergraduate programs. This keeps the gifted out of crucial progressive careers such as research, technology, manufacturing, and education. Instead, these talented recruits are stuck creating and calculating insane derivatives that make absolutely no sense, but are extraordinary tools to make a profit off the economy’s collapse.

          The Wall Street Bailout of 2008 was most assuredly the greatest driving force toward the extreme inequality that now cripples American society. Banks were about to fail and the market was on the brink of collapse, so they begged and pleaded for the government to provide aid, and they got what they wanted. Hundreds of billions of taxpayer-funded assistance went directly to the wealthiest banks and corporations in the form of bonuses and raises. Americans still do not know where a large chunk of those funds ended up, except that they were not used in the manner they were supposed to be. Consequently, this has led America to literally become the country where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.                  In short, America has drifted far from the “Land of Opportunity” that was once promised to all. Hard workers can no longer afford to be comfortable while the wealthy continue to claim all that has value. Now is the time to rise up and make a stand. Use Facebook and Twitter to spread the news and reveal the lies. Occupation of Wall Street has now lasted nearly a month, and continues to spread across the globe. Anyone who struggles has an obligation to be a part of the Revolution that is now underway.

Sources

(1) "capitalism." The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 05 Oct. 2011. <Dictionary.comhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capitalism>.