What is “freedom”? In this writer’s estimate, it is the absence of any political or legal restraints or constraints against the unfettered expression of individual opinion, speech, belief and movement within a society of people, and to include the right of property ownership.

So let’s take a look at freedom in America based upon the above definition. If you want to start a business in America, you need to get permission, and a license. The license is a proof of permission combined with an extortion fee to get that permission. In America’s founding, nobody needed permission to start a business. Licensing of course helps to limit competition. Licensing doesn’t necessary assure anyone of the competency or honesty of the licensee. Surely everyone has has a licensed doctor who did a poor job. We’ve all seen crazy and incompetent drivers who are licensed. People have been sold shoddy products or given shoddy service from a retailer who was licensed. And at one point, everyone has likely had food poisoning from a “licensed” restaurant. These of course are just skimming the surface.

One hundred years ago in America (not a long time in the scheme of history), people lived close to their families and knew their neighbors. If there was a good doctor, dentist or restaurant, people learned of them by word of mouth – not a biased television ad because television didn’t exist and radio was in its infancy and not much of a factor. Licensing was not a real factor one hundred years ago. So what has happened to turn from word of mouth to trusting in licenses?

The Socialist is oriented toward patient gradualism. A little incursion here; a small step there, and over time the landscape of political and economic life changes drastically. Vladimir Lenin in his Bolshevik revolution said that you take two steps forward and one step back. At that rate, somebody’s losing ground, and typically it’s the honest guy minding his own business who doesn’t want to be bothered by politics.

The Socialist wants to create a total dependence upon government by the average citizen. So, how has this manifested itself in the last 100 years? As mentioned already, businesses are licensed which gives them an air of respectability and credibility. The Federal Reserve which is slightly older that one hundred years has assumed the responsibility of pricing our money and determining how much is available. This approach has undermined the traditional supply and demand criteria which determines prices and availability. Additionally the Fed has directed its money efforts in certain areas to promote them and withheld them from other areas to discourage those enterprises.

Now, Americans are dependent upon a money cabal called the Federal Reserve for their daily bread literally. The Fed’s have pushed home ownership by running very low interest rates. Everyone wants to buy a home and the price of homes are going through the roof. If the Fed’s raise interest rates, the price of homes will fall because people will not be able to afford them. Those who have taken on huge debt will be wiped out. So, people have become dependent upon a central bank to make life affordable. Many people do not realize that the 5th plank of the Communist Manifesto is a Central Bank.

So, over time, we are now in a position of going from not needing a license to drive, or operate a business, to needing a license for everything. And people trust that a licensed person or business is qualified to operate accordingly. Licensing is a restriction on the ability to act independently and without restraints or constraints.