It's truly amazing for Americans to have a holiday dedicated to gratitude, and it's so fitting for us, as some of the luckiest people on the planet.
This country has a lot to be thankful for. We are incredibly wealthy compared to most countries. We are given more freedom by our constitutional tradition. We have many opportunities to succeed and many opportunities to fail.
She excitedly asked if she could press a button on the machine. Then she sat in front of it and watched it work as if it were entertainment.
Recognizing these blessings makes me a conservative, and I continue to maintain my belief in conservative values despite constant challenges to my understanding of the world.
At the top of that list is the free market, the source of many blessings we have to be grateful for. This is not to say that the free market should be free of constraints or that there should be no abuse of the system. Abuse exists, of course, and the causes of those abuses range from a lack of personal responsibility to flaws in the system.
In fact, free markets provide us with so many benefits that we take them for granted and quickly forget how much our lives have improved in such a short period of time.
There is a great example of this trend. A while ago I had a dental checkup, and a young assistant told me that she was going to take x-rays of my teeth. I prepared to go to the X-ray room. Of course, she just pulled the x-ray machine and held it up to my face and took a few images.
“That machine is really amazing,” I told her.
She didn't understand what I meant.
We explained that just a few years ago, X-ray machines were much larger, more expensive, and not as convenient to take pictures of. She had no clue.
It felt like the meme where an older woman tells a younger person about her past, and the younger person replies, “That's amazing!” Grandma, let's go to bed. ”
Part of the reason this story happened is simply because I'm older, but I also believe that the invisible hand of the free market is making things better and better every moment of every day, and that we're all benefiting from it. It's also because we take it all for granted. .
After thousands of years of incredible technological and scientific advances, people are born on Earth in this era, and instead of looking around with overwhelming wonder and gratitude, they look for problems and wipe everything away. I'm just amazed at how much people ask for things. .
If you don't mind, I'll give you another example that I always mention on this subject. There is a Ted Talk called. You can watch it on YouTube About the washing machine and how it revolutionized women's lives and changed human society.
Swedish scholar Hans Rosling recounts the day when he was a child when his parents finally managed to save enough money to buy a washing machine. His grandmother, who had spent her life boiling water over a wood fire and washing her seven children's laundry by hand, excitedly asked if she could push the button on the washing machine. Then she sat in front of it and watched it work as if it were entertainment.
“For my grandmother, the washing machine was a miracle,” he explained.
He goes on to say that advances in technology, which we all take for granted, have allowed women to have more leisure time, which has allowed some to read, and which has led to further advancements. explained how it gave women the freedom to work and find their own careers.
Please go see it. It's definitely worth your time to watch, but even 10 years after its release, it's only been viewed an embarrassing 736,000 times.
It's really worth stopping and thinking about how much freedom we've been given, for better or worse, thanks to all the advances invented and developed in the free market. And it's really worth remembering those blessings when deciding whether to side with the free market. Standing on the side of policies that increase freedom or those that aim to trample it.
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