The term Volkswirtschaft was long applied by the German champions of government omnipotence. Only much later did the British and the French begin to speak of the 'British economy' and 'l'economie francaise' as distinct from the economies of other nations. But neither the English nor the French language produced an equivalent of the term Volkswirtschaft.
The Volkswirtschaft is a sovereign nation's total complex of economic activities directed and controlled by the government. It is socialism realized within the political frontiers of each nation.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action
This blog is my stand against that assumption. American Volkswirtschaft says no: you are both wrong. The common economy in this country is not characterized by freedom.
This is a chronicle of the vast variety of ways federal, state, and local United States government entities attempt to direct, control, and shape American economic action. It is a direct rebuttal to anyone claiming we operate within the context of a free market capitalist society where individuals are at liberty to peacefully associate with whomever they wish and peacefully trade their legitimately-owned private property with whomever they wish.
We do not. It is an everlasting shame that this is the case. Individuals may have a degree of economic freedom not allowed in many other countries, but that does not forgive gross errors and mischaracterizations.
I begin shouting into the darkness on this day, April 15, 2013. Hundreds of millions of Americans are forced by penalty of law to hand over a portion of their income to the federal government. Trillions of dollars (that's $1,000,000,000,000, folks) will forcibly shift from individuals to the state. The act of taxation alone is proof that an economy is not free.
Federal law threatened me with fines and imprisonment for earning money and not giving the state some arbitrary cut.
The $2,800 I "owed" the IRS could have been used for extra savings against a future emergency or for helping a friend get through a period of unemployment. I might have spent it on a car to replace my dying Accord or a solid privacy fence for my house. That money would have been handy to pay down credit card debt, upgrade my home computer, buy new cameras and lenses, treated my friends and family to food and drinks, or even build my cat's dream playhouse.
It does not matter to me whether the money I handed over builds an embassy blast wall in Afghanistan, pays for a child's operation, repairs a pothole on IH35, or funds basic research into genetics. The federal government threatened me with violence if I did not give it up and as a result, I was less free to act to improve my life.
Acting to improve your life is the essence of economics. Any American government policy that interferes between a person and their choice to work, trade, buy, sell, or own is subject matter for this blog.
