Public opinion, as offered by the media, gives some insight, but little validity beyond the casual conversation level. Few inquiries, even among independent surveyors, are truly unbiased.
The announcement an opinion poll is of itself propaganda, raising the subject in public awareness and offering 'popular' positions on a subject without including much in the way of serious thought or consideration in depth. That's deliberate, of course.
What's the result? Often, we're left with polarization based on little thought, science, or history; more on feelings than facts.
Along that line; consider the history and purpose of the marketplace. It is either for competition or cooperation, for individual or for mutual benefit, success for all or for one at the expense of others.
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The marketplace began as a place where we could sell to
each other and go home at the end of the day with the things
we needed. That was the idea, anyway.
It worked among the villages along the Niger River for
sixteen centuries. When times were tough, they flexed
a bit to make sure everyone had enough to get by.
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The public discussion could and in fact has been offered as capitalism vs. communism vs. socialism.
Each of the three economic and governmental models is defensible in moderation. Each is beneficially incorporated to one degree or another in every developed nation. The negative aspects of each are the result of excess by a few power players, not from the basic concepts.
Public roads and highway systems, municipal utilities, community and state schools and universities, are all expressions of communistic solutions.
Assistance programs fall perhaps into the socialist category as do health departments and law enforcement, product safety standards and oversight of trade practices.
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| Wall Street and the financial district; the New York Stock Exchange draped with the American Flag, viewed from Washington's statue. |
Yet, if you ask public opinion, we have a free-market capitalist economy, the quick answer. If you suggest 'socialist' moderations or 'communist' constraints, of course, you're attacked as un-American, despite the fact that such things have been imbedded in our governance since the earliest days.
Such is the thought process of the public when deliberately provoked by power players for the benefit of their agenda. The product of such a marketplace view is the benefit of some at the expense of many. Morally considered, that's assault and robbery, yet such is often taught in schools and churches as the right way. Why might that be, and who would advance such thinking?
Liberty and freedom, our life's blood, are perhaps more noble than can be expressed by Wall Street.
- Freedom is not the power to rise on the backs of others.
- Freedom is not for getting ahead and leaving others behind any more than humanity's purpose is the survival just of the strongest.
- The full declaration is a world-changer.