Show freedom is indivisible It is an unfortunate fact that many words of wide connotation connon connotation conno conno- tation are so often used abused and misused as to lose their basic meaning in the minds of great numbers of people Two of those words are capitalism and socialism Ask the next man you meet for a definition of them and it will be bea a minor miracle if you get a clear answer Henry Hazlitt in one of his Newsweek magazine columns says something that should be far better understood than it actually is To quote Capitalism is merely the name for a n system of economic liberty Under it civil and political liberties liberties liberties liber liber- ties flourish and are secure Under a complete or nearly complete complete complete com com- socialism neither economic nor political liberty can exist Freedom is indivisible How can there be freedom of press speech or assembly when the government owns all the newspapers presses and assembly halls halts As Leon Trotsky who knew wrote In 1937 In a country where the sole sale employer employer employer em em- is the State opposition means death by slow starvation starvation starvation tion The old principle Who does docs not work shall not eat has been replaced by a n new one Who does docs not obey shall not eat It One phrase alone taken from this quotation sums up the story Freedom is indivisible Without economic freedom there can be no other basic freedom This is why capitalism whatever its faults has done more good for more people tangibly and intangibly than any other system yet devised by man |