So, I’d like to tell you a story about how my husband and I brought our dreams to life in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
We met during COVID, and were married 3 months later. I always thought that “when you know, you know” was a ridiculous cliche, but I guess it’s true!
We discovered early on that we both loved visiting Coeur d’Alene, so when we found our fixer upper downtown, we were ready to get to work transforming it into our Vacation home away from home.
After working on the house a few weeks, meeting our neighbors, and experiencing the peace and joy of day-to-day living here, we decided to make CDA our home.
We saved a 1911 craftsman bungalow, rather than tearing it down. Early in the process part of the foundation collapsed, and we rebuilt it together. We replaced and modernized every inch of the house, but from the outside you can hardly tell. It’s the same proud and beautiful home that has graced our neighborhood for the past 114 years.
Now we’re able to supplement our income to pay back the costs of the renovation by offering our home as a Vacation Rental. Like thousands of other Vacation Rental owners across the State, we put our hearts and souls into that house, and LOVE creating a warm and beautiful place to welcome guests to our treasured town. 💕
Capitalism means that people can plan for the future because they can be reasonably secure in their possessions.
Socialism leaves people in fear that whatever they save or build could be taken away by mob whims.
Hmm...how about the principle of freedom? Capitalism is the only social system with the foundation of freedom at its core. To have the freedom to think, the freedom to act on those thoughts, and the freedom to keep what one has earned, a person needs a social system that is set up to protect their individual rights.
Communism and Socialism are not set up to protect individual rights. In fact, the founding fathers considered Socialism and rejected it. Why? Because Socialism is based on majority rule. And the founding fathers did not want to make it possible for the majority to be able to vote away the rights of a minority.
Socialists look at wealthy men buying politicians and conclude the problem is the market.
Then they propose giving politicians even more power over wealth.
It's a bit like noticing the bartender waters down the drinks and deciding the solution is to let him own the distillery.
If your complaint is that government can be captured by the rich, the obvious solution is to limit what government can hand out.
Instead, socialism hands the government a larger wallet, a bigger stick, and more authority over everyone else's lives, then acts surprised when people compete to capture it.
The diagnosis is often correct.
The prescription is more of the disease.
The more we trust people, the more they prosper.
That was the lesson from nearly everything I wrote about this week.
📈 Economic mobility
📊 Jobs
🏡 Housing
🏠 Property taxes
💳 Credit-card debt
💰 State budgets
Different issues. Same conclusion.
🧵1/
“Limiting the range of choices open to people via protectionist measures clashes with the fundamental, natural right to be free to choose, bounded by a just rule of law.”
- James A. Dorn
So, I make $100 and the government takes 1/3 of that.
I take the 2/3 remaining to me and I buy something that I need.
They tax that.
I take what is left over and split it in half: half to the bank and have to an investment account.
The interest I make from the bank?
They tax that.
The interest I make from my investments?
They tax that.
If somehow, after all the confiscations, I’m able to buy myself a piece of land they will tax my purchase.
Then, even though they pretend I owe the land, they charge me every year for the right to live on it.
While the Democrats and Republicans keep us fighting each other over how much billionaires are taxed, we stop looking at how much money they take from us and pour into a monstrous bureaucracy that every day seems to take away a little more of our freedoms and give us less in return.
Just a note for all of you who have picked a side in the tyrannical two party system.
People and capital naturally migrate toward economic liberty. Punitive taxes don’t just penalize success—they erode the local tax base, stifling the revenue needed for essential public services. True human flourishing relies on the freedom to innovate and retain the rewards of hard work, driving broad economic growth that ultimately benefits everyone.
It's a weird sort of virtue that says a man may save for twenty years to buy a house, but his neighbor may not borrow against twenty years of future savings to buy one today.
The fellow who already has the money is praised for his independence. The fellow who wishes to make a voluntary arrangement with a lender is told freedom must be denied for his own good.
I've noticed that many schemes for liberating mankind begin by taking away his choices. One needn't persuade a man when one can simply forbid him.