“Where, oh where, has my liberty gone?” we cry.
Too often the answer is, “The ‘government’ stole it!”
Liberty-loving Americans must bring politics and economics back into the first person.
We speak of the “the government” and the “the economy” as if they were independent, conscious entities.
But the “government” is people, interacting with each other and operating according to forms and policies established by we the people and our duly elected representatives.
Likewise, the “economy” is people interacting and acting according to economic forms and norms in the interest of bringing value to themselves and those they love.
Where has our liberty gone? It has gone into the oblivion of the third person — that third person being “i Government.”
Liberty is not a product or even a state of being; it is a process, lifestyle, and culture. It has always found its life and growth in history when people have lived it.
It is not birthed or proliferated authentically through legislation or through civil disobedience in the streets.
It’s easy for a nation looking for excuses to raise fearful illusions even to godlike status — with powerful abilities and magical powers for bestowing ease and power to its favorites.
Unfortunately, this imagined god is also vengeful and will sometimes strike innocent people with undeserved punishments of poverty (against their will, of course).
This imagined monster is blamed for stealing people’s liberty.
How To Make the Economy “First Person”
Families have become appendages in economy — flies on the elephant, giving up their place as the central economic source of resources and growth in our economy.
With the rise of the Industrial Revolution came the consumer-finance industry. You may have heard of the original Sears and Robuck Magazines that came out in the 1920’s, offering American “consumers” (yet another identity that has risen) an array of products on credit.
They swept the nation and are a symptom of the rising obsession with material products. A new economy rose; one that has been fueled, burned to charcoal, then burned again and again — on the fires of consumer whims.
A people obsessed with enjoying the fruits before performing the labor will sell even their liberty — indeed they will have to when their resources are depleted.
The number one way for American families to bring “the economy” into the first person is for them to take back the direct responsibility and control of their economy.
How do they do this? They must adopt economic forms that are conducive to liberty.
This is where Georgics come in.
Citizens must learn and apply the timeless lesson that we reap what we sow, and apply it in their financial lives in the following ways:
- Never borrow to consume.
- Spend less than you earn.
- Plant the “seeds” of your capital by invest your savings into people and projects that will bring you the “harvest” of a financial return.
Making the Government First Person
The cliché answers are varied: “get involved,” “vote,” “write your Congressman,” watch the news,” and “speak out for what you believe.”
The truth must be admitted: You are the government!
I offer a challenge: Name one person in this entire nation that has more direct responsibility for this nation’s happiness, future, policies, laws, and every other reality, than YOU.
Maybe you would say the President has more responsibility than you. Is that really true, when he is only our representative?
We cannot all be President of the United States at the same time, but we are all citizens.
If we should not point the finger at anyone but ourselves for the state of the nation, then it is certainly childish to point the finger at our President for the state of our personal financial statements.
I recently listened to a program featured on National Public Radio where a woman called in on the subject of rising home foreclosures.
She said she did not hear the media admitting the follies of the people who had signed their names for risky variable interest rate loans.
The NPR host was polite at first, but ended up cutting the woman off saying, “Even irresponsible people suffer sometimes, ma’am.”
That statement tripped me up for a few minutes.
Clearly the host felt it effective to dismiss the truth of the caller’s words with mockery.
The fact that the media will not address, let alone admit, the irresponsible financial actions of millions of Americans is another symptom of the upside down nature of our society; a society where courage fails and appeasement reigns.
By lifting their audience above reproach, for popularity reasons, the media contributes to their slavery.
Actions Have Consequences
Have you ever considered that it is Americans that have (through their Representatives) laid taxes on other Americans to finance desired benefits? As Benjamin Franklin said,
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
Americans are selling their liberties in exchange for other Americans’ goods and at the expense of their fellow Americans!
Is YOUR palm open facing up, asking for an ear of corn, or facing down, grappling a metaphorical hoe, as you till the ground to plant seeds of production?
Are “YOU the Government” taxing, or producing?
Great article. Personal responsibility in all facets of our lives is the key to change. This holds true for individuals, families, and societies.
Good article. If we followed those three simple rules and lived a ‘georgic’ lifestyle, a lot of these economic problems would be irrelevent. No need for a fed reserve, for as a culture we took care of ourselves when busts came, no worries about social security, for we would save up for retirement, and less worries about recessions, for we would be prepared for them.
It is always better to live within the laws of nature rather than try to create a complicated society that tries to live outside them.