Jordan Richardson

 You know why I love capitalism? Because you can take a red paperclip and trade up for a fish pen, and that for something of greater value, and so on and so on. This is what Kyle MacDonald did. After 14 trades later, on July 12, 2006, he traded with the Town of Kipling Saskatchewan for a house located at 503 Main Street. With my luck, I would be happy to get my red paperclip back after the day.

Luckily, I can sell anything (minus contraband items) on eBay and have a tidy sum of profit after a while. It is great! It is a system called Capitalism that lets people like me compete in a free market. Moreover, it is not just for buying and selling, I can make movies and upload them to YouTube or write music and publish it on iTunes. As long as you have the ability and the motivation, the opportunity exists for you to become very successful.

From Wiki: Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned and operated for profit, and in which distribution, production and pricing of goods and services are determined in a largely free market.

To break it down, we, the citizens of America, have equal access to the market of trade. Furthermore, we can make decisions about what path our company takes, and the amount or variety of items we sell. This system, propagated by Adam Smith in 1700's has served America well and made her the strongest nation in the world. Our system of innovation and incentive to work rewards the laborers and the country as a whole.

This week we all paid income taxes, a dreadful procedure and an insult to the Constitution. Guess what? Liberal Democrats want to roll back the Bush tax cuts and institute a higher rate of taxation. Typical. History and the economy just do not seem to apply to their plans. There is however, an even more outrageous idea currently touted by the clever Libs.

The Democrats in Congress have acquired the Lemming mindset; they are intent on creating more taxes for the middle and richer business classes. The Democrats claim that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Therefore, their solution is to have a higher rate of tax for wealthy businesses and corporations, among other things, a windfall tax. A tax on making more than you projected to.

Now, simple logic deduces that if businesses are taxed more, then to maintain a profit, they will tack on the extra cost to their product, whatever it may be. They will still make gross amounts of money because they have transferred the cost of the taxes on the buyers, who are usually in the middle class. It can be especially bad if the company sells things like, food, or gas. The windfall tax is not just on luxury yachts makers; it applies to every company. The result is that the rich will remain rich while everyone else takes the monetary hit.

A truly free economy allows businesses to move freely in the market without the hindrance of the government. It defies every economic law to impose more taxes on corporations and ordinary individuals. If Democrats were sincere about their motivations, they would begin to cut taxes from business sectors. Without the increased overhead cost caused by corporate and windfall taxes, industries could sell their products at a lower price and thereby engage in the classic supply and demand process. Competition is good for an economy and the way to maintain a healthy, robust market, taxes must drop.

It is a simple, logical way to ensure that our economy will last the next 20-50 years. Democrats in Congress, listen up: We do not want any more social programs, give us our money back! Who knows, maybe with the money we save we could all buy a bag of paperclips.

Jordan Richardson is the founder of Conservative Mind.
www.conservativemind.org