Giving Thanks...One Day at a Time

Giving Thanks…One Day at a Time

Murray Sabrin

We have much to be thankful for living in New Jersey, despite the best efforts of the political class in Trenton to make the Garden State as inhospitable as possible.

With all the ills facing hundreds of millions of human beings around the world, we live in relative safety and comfort. In the past year a tsunami, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, and bombings in and outside of Iraq have killed hundreds of thousand of fellow human beings around the world. In other words, life is very precarious in many parts of the planets because of Mother Nature and the violence perpetrated by governments and criminals. (Isn’t that redundant?)

In the Garden State, however, the Trenton political elite do not intend to make life more difficult than it has to be, but the tax-and-spend-and borrow and regulate mindset of past governors and a majority of legislators is taking its toll. New Jersey’s reputation as a corrupt, out of control spending, high tax, regulate everything state is not attracting many high paying jobs, and tens of thousands jobs may vanish in the next few years as employers leave for more business friendly communities throughout the country.

Nevertheless, we still have the freedom to choose where we live and where we want to work. And business executive and small business owners also have the right to choose where to locate their enterprises. That’s why the free enterprise system and our political structure, where states—the laboratories of democracy—are engaging in a healthy competition to attract businesses, is still making it possible for entrepreneurship to thrive in America.

And most importantly, we have the right to speak out and criticize the status quo without the fear of being arrested and jailed…for the time being. Freedom is hanging by a precious thread in America. It is up to everyone across the political spectrum to support the First Amendment and the other nine that comprise the Bill of Rights without reservation.

As long as the federal government does not get out of control—imposing import and export controls, imposing windfall profits taxes, boosting spending to the stratosphere, and ratcheting up the regulatory machine--we will muddle through unless the Federal Reserve cranks up the printing presses in the next few years to “stimulate” the economy. Then all bets are off. The dollar will go into a free fall and economic chaos will ensue.

In the meantime, we have to be uncompromising defenders of liberty and free enterprise—the two essential ingredients of a just and prosperous society. We have to engage the proponents of statism---the supporters of entitlement and redistribution. We have them to challenge them to defend the moral foundation of the welfare state. In other words, we have to take the high road.

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, last year on www.lewrockwell.com Anthony Gregory captured the essence of the holiday:

We owe thanks to the market – to the millions of men and women, Americans and foreigners, employers and employees, managers and workers – for our Thanksgiving dinners, and for almost all else of material worth in our lives. The market, along with our families, friends, and communities, embodies the civil, peaceful and cooperative spirit to which we owe thanks for all productive and harmonious human activity – in other words, for civilization itself.

Amen.

Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., is professor of finance in the School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he is also executive director of the Center for Business and Public Policy, www.ramapo.edu/cbpp.