From: RobertArvay@msn.com   
      
   Even though I studied fundamental economics at the college level, I have found   
   that anyone, yes anyone, can learn enough about economics, on their own,   
   without college, to tell the difference between common sense, and the idiocy   
   that pervades Leftist and    
   Marxist ideology.   
      
   Let’s begin with these commonsense items:  you don’t get something from   
   nothing.  Apart from what nature provides, nothing is truly free.  Wealth does   
   not magically appear because someone wished for it, or because someone else   
   promised it.  Goods    
   have to be produced, and services have to be provided—by someone with   
   skills, getting up early, taking risks, competing and working hard.  People   
   will produce, but only if they expect to gain some benefit by doing so.  (Even   
   volunteers have to eat.)   
      
   What about distributing those goods and services?  Marxists and Leftists   
   propose that goods and services should be forcibly taken from those who   
   produce, and given to those who don’t.  That is not distribution, it is   
   theft.  Charity is a necessary    
   virtue, but that virtue is defined by giving one’s own money, not someone   
   else’s.   
      
   Distribution is properly done by people who are willing and able to pay value   
   for value.  Supply and demand provide the methods of fair distribution.    
      
   Once you understand all that, you know more about economics than do all the   
   Leftist economists and Marxists in the world.   
      
   Individual people tend to pursue their own self-interests, and their best   
   means of doing this is to produce goods and services that other people are   
   willing and able to pay for.  People who take without producing are thieves.    
   Children, and the    
   legitimate recipients of charity, etc., are of course not included in that   
   description.   
      
   The one person who knows best what is good for you—is you.  Even when you   
   are wrong, you are less wrong than those who try to run your life for you.    
   You, not they, enjoy or suffer the consequences of your decisions, and that   
   motivation makes your    
   judgment superior to theirs.   
      
   Societies and nations have a legitimate function only when they protect your   
   rights, and even then, only when those in power govern with the consent of the   
   governed.   
      
   Rights are not arbitrary.  They are granted to us by God.  Governments have no   
   rights, but only powers.  We do not give power to the government, we only lend   
   it, and we can take it back at any time, and without permission of the   
   government.   
      
   Freedom is both a right and a responsibility.  When freedom is abused, it will   
   inevitably be lost.  Freedom must be defended, often at great cost.  The duty   
   of a free man is to defend that freedom, not only for himself, but for others.   
      
   Without economic freedom, there is no political freedom.  You are entitled to   
   the fruit of your labors, but you are not entitled to receive what others have   
   produced.  You are obligated to recompense others in turn when they labor for   
   you.  When you are    
   properly represented, you must render unto the government its justly imposed   
   taxes, but first, you must render unto God what is His, and not permit the   
   government to oppose God with your taxes.   
      
   There are people who do not understand these principles, and worse, there are   
   people who refuse to accept them.  Such people make matters difficult and   
   complicated, sometimes deliberately.  Opposing them is likewise difficult and   
   complicated, but it must    
   be done.   
      
   Do not expect a utopian world to result from your efforts.  Life will never be   
   perfect until Jesus returns.  Until then, our duty is to make the best of what   
   we have.   
   -   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)