Even though I studied fundamental economics at the college level, I have found that anyone, yes, anyone, can learn enough about economics, on his own, without college, to tell the difference between common sense and the idiocy that pervades leftist and Marxist ideology.  

Let's begin with these commonsense items: you don't get something from nothing.  Apart from what nature provides, nothing is truly free.  Wealth does not magically appear because someone wished for it, or because someone else promised it.  Goods have to be produced, and services have to be provided — by someone with skills, getting up early, taking risks, competing, and working hard.  People will produce, but only if they expect to gain some benefit by doing so.  (Even volunteers have to eat.)  

What about distributing those goods and services?  Marxists and leftists propose that goods and services should be forcibly taken from those who produce and given to those who don't.  That is not distribution; it is theft.  Charity is a necessary virtue, but that virtue is defined by giving one's own money, not someone else's.  

Distribution is properly done by people who are willing and able to pay value for value.  Supply and demand provide the methods of fair distribution.  

Once you understand all that, you know more about economics than do all the leftist economists and Marxists in the world.  

Individual people tend to pursue their own self-interest, and their best means of doing this is to produce goods and services that other people are willing and able to pay for.  People who take without producing are thieves.  Children, and the legitimate recipients of charity, etc., are not included in that description.  

The one person who knows best what is good for you — is you.  Even when you are wrong, you are less wrong than those who try to run your life for you.  You, not they, enjoy or suffer the consequences of your decisions, and that motivation makes your judgment superior to theirs.  

Societies and nations have a legitimate function only when they protect your rights, and even then, only when those in power govern with the consent of the governed.  

Rights are not arbitrary.  They are granted to us by God.  Governments have no rights, but only powers.  We do not give power to the government; we only lend it, and we can take it back at any time, and without permission of the government.  

Freedom is both a right and a responsibility.  When freedom is abused, it will inevitably be lost.  Freedom must be defended, often at great cost.  The duty of a free man is to defend that freedom, not only for himself, but for others.  

Without economic freedom, there is no political freedom.  You are entitled to the fruit of your labors, but you are not entitled to receive what others have produced.  You are obligated to compensate others when they labor for you.  When you are properly represented, you must render unto the government its justly imposed taxes, but first, you must render unto God what is His, and not permit the government to oppose God with your taxes.  

There are people who do not understand these principles, and worse, there are people who refuse to accept them.  Such people make matters difficult and complicated, sometimes deliberately.  Opposing them is likewise difficult and complicated, but it must be done.  

Do not expect a utopian world to result from your efforts.  Life will never be perfect until Jesus returns.  Until then, our duty is to make the best of what we have.  

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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