The Trader in a Free Society

Somehow this poster captured the mood of recent weather...and politics. Thanks to a trader for passing along.

The reality, however, is that the expansion of government--and the increasing hand of government in the pockets and lives of citizens--has transcended party affiliation. Activism by government--whether the activism be militaristic, social, regulatory, or monetary--has taken precedence over fiscal prudence in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

We pay for governmental profligacy with higher taxes, a debased currency, and quite possibly both. We pay with a diminished opportunity set for our children and disincentives to save.

In a free society, a person is entitled to the fruits of their labor. It is not a governmental giveaway to end taxation on estates that had already paid taxes. It is not a giveaway to allow people to keep more of what they have earned with their own efforts. What a person earns is not the government's property to give away.

There is a name for a system in which others dispose of the fruits of your labor: it is slavery.

In a free society, the government serves the people, protecting their rights and property and protecting their security. The people do not serve the government; first claim to their income does not belong to any militarist, re-distributionist, or interventionist who seeks to impose his or her particular vision of New World Order.

There's a lot in the trading world I don't care for, and some day I'll write about that. But I'll give everyday, independent traders this: they eat what they kill, they don't look for handouts or bailouts, and they put their money at risk every day in support of their own vision, their own enterprise, and their own judgment.

And their hands are in their own pockets.

More:

The Value of Trading

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