The Wall Street Journal published an article on the demise of communist china's capitalism.

A friend wrote the book All Roads Lead to China.  He often said that China was more capitalistic than America.  It was.  China's capitalism exists only because the Chinese government allowed it to exist.  It exists in an artificial bubble created by the communist Chinese government.  The bubble is about to pop because communist control is killing the golden goose, as so often happens.

Capitalism, which is free enterprise based on the individual's right to ownership of property, can easily be crushed by an over-aggressive government.  This is what we see in China today.

Herein lies the chasm between the two forms of capitalism: America's and Chinese.  America's form of capitalism sprang from the individual transacting business in a free society, with a constitutionally restrained government.  The Chinese government is not constrained by a constitution that sanctifies the individual.  China promotes the collective, the antithesis of the individual.

Our own country would do well to re-learn this lesson.  Individual freedom, protected by a controlled, not controlling, government, gave rise to the most powerful and individual economy that history has ever known.  The question for America is, do we follow China's lead and allow a controlling government entity to restrict our individual freedoms?

America was not freed, nor was America built, by the timid.  She was forged in the fires of individualism.  Each citizen took responsibility for his own freedom.  Our country's backbone is the Constitution.  Said document recognizes that individual liberty springs not from government, but from our Creator.  Hence Thomas Jefferson's statement in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

Jay Davidson is founder and CEO of a commercial bank.  He is a student of the Austrian School of Economics and a rabid capitalist.  He believes there is a direct connection between individual right and responsibility, our Constitution, capitalism, and the intent of our Creator.

Image via Pxfuel.