This is actually a re-hash of a blog post I did in Tiquicia back when the U.S. presidential election was in full swing.  In light of events that have transpired since then, and seem to continue to transpire at alarmingly accelerated rates, I thought it was a good idea to re-post the relevant section here……

Finally, how about the pursuit of happiness?  Happiness is defined as a state of well-being and contentment.  Socrates asserted that the highest good for any human being is happiness and this is one of the reasons it plays such an important role as one of the three ideals that underlie the U.S. constitution.  What we heard from the Democrats during the Obama campaign was this idea of “spreading the wealth around.”  Is that idea consistent with the ideal of “the pursuit of happiness” in a free democratic society? What does “the pursuit of happiness” mean in a free democratic society?  In the U.S. we have always believed that the path to happiness is capitalism.  And that government’s role in promoting happiness is to vigorously defend capitalism.  Capitalism is defined as an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.  I am not going to call Obama’s “spread the wealth” ideas socialism.  Don’t want to go there.  I do not believe Obama is a “socialist.”  However, I will submit that his ideas of “spread the wealth” are not consistent with capitalism.  In a capitalistic free democratic society if I am able to achieve wealth I should not have to fear that some part of my wealth will be taken in order to provide more happiness to someone else that has not been able to achieve as much.  You see the big fallacy with that idea is that it destroys the motivation (the private decision referenced in the definition) to achieve and it is that motivation, and the protection of it, that has made the U.S.A. a great nation, arguably the greatest in history. 

With that said, I realize that capitalism at this moment in history has a black eye.  In recent years, as my world view has increased and my once hard-line conservatism has softened, I have come to believe that there is something wrong with American capitalism.  I have recently called it “capitalism run amuck.”  There is no better symbolism of this notion than the film Wall Street and Gordon Gecko’s admonition that “greed is good.”  No, in my opinion greed is not good and it is greed that is at the heart of the reason that capitalism has “run amuck.”  But the question is can government change it, or should it even try?  I would say no.  Of course government has to step in when greed results in actual overreaching and downright criminal behavior.  It is then that the pursuit of happiness, wrongly motivated, begins to conflict with the ideals of life and liberty (and yes government also has the role of making sure the pursuit of one ideal doesn’t offend the pursuit of another.  For example, in my pursuit of happiness I cannot through force or threat of force take away your happiness).  But I believe that the cure for sick capitalism, or capitalism run amuck, must begin in the minds, hearts and souls of the American people.  That is, the pursuit of enormous amounts of wealth just for the sake of having more, that is, pure greed, can only be cured by a “heart change” inside the person doing the pursuing.  That heart change is the realization that maybe it is not “all about me” and that if I am able to achieve great wealth, then maybe there is a greater purpose for that achievement and maybe I can make the decision to “spread that happiness around.”  It is not government’s role to force me into that decision.  It is my private decision.  It is a decision to invest in the betterment of humankind, rather than simply increase my state of luxury.  The U.S.A. will be better off when folks realize that the true value in capitalism is in creating an environment where one can achieve great wealth in order to fulfill the higher purpose of spreading happiness.  With that change in mindset, capitalism will start working again.  Then we all become “happiness spreaders” as opposed to the government becoming a “wealth spreader.”  In the former case, free democratic ideals are supported, whereas in the latter, they are threatened.