Personal Freedom Requires Economic Freedom

For John, BLUF:  The more the Government controls your life, the less freedom you have.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I Grew Up in a Communist System. Here’s What Americans Don’t Understand About Freedom

Here is the sub-headline:

Only in a free-market system can we truly achieve individual liberty and human flourishing.

From The Foundation for Economic Education, by Carmen Alexe, 9 March 2018.

Here is the lede plus three:

Individual freedom can only exist in the context of free-market capitalism.  Personal freedom thrives in capitalism, declines in government-regulated economies, and vanishes in communism.  Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense appreciation for individual freedom and capitalism.

I was born and raised in communist Romania during the Cold War, a country in which the government owned all the resources and means of production.  The state controlled almost every aspect of our lives: our education, our job placement, the time of day we could have hot water, and what we were allowed to say.

Like the rest of the Eastern European countries, Romania was often referred to as a communist country.  In school, we were taught it was a socialist country.  Its name prior to the 1989 Revolution to overthrow the Ceausescu regime was the Socialist Republic of Romania.

From an economic standpoint, a petty fraction of property was still privately owned.  In a communist system, all property is owned by the state.  So if it wasn't a true communist economy, its heavy central planning and the application of a totalitarian control over the Romanian citizenry made this nation rightfully gain its title of a communist country.

Notwithstanding Mr Karl Marx working in the British Museum, and the existence of the British Labor Party, Communism is not compatible with the Rights of Englishmen.

Regards  —  Cliff