Our “friends” on the left take delight in labeling those of us who don’t agree with them on the benefits of surrendering our freedom & responsibilities to government as “Free Market Fundamentalists” (FMF). My guess is that somehow they view it as pejorative in that they think since it conjures up the term Fundamentalist Christianity it is bad. Many of them view anything that smacks of religion, core beliefs and values as a bad thing. It is better to have a floating set of beliefs that are evolving.
I think that being labeled an FMF is a term of honor. Two of the antonyms of free are slave and unfree, neither of which I wish for myself or anyone else.
This brings us to the problem of what to call our “friends” on the left. After much thought, (not really) I am proposing the name of (drum roll please) “Anti-Market Apparatchiks” for our friends on the left. Since all of their proposals involve increasing the power of the state and reducing the freedom of action of the individual I think apparatchiks fits them perfectly. I invite everyone to submit their nomination.
While the Free Market is messy and confusing it is much better than a slave market. Free Markets mean that we have to make hundreds of choices daily. Free Markets mean we are responsible for our choices. Free Markets also mean that we may make bad choices like a plasma TV over health insurance or a higher rate mortgage loan because we did not shop.
But the positives of the Free Market far outweigh the negative because Free Markets provide us with hundreds of choices on an endless variety of products. Our Anti-Market Apparatchiks friends yearn for the limited choices enjoyed by the unfortunate citizens of the former Soviet Union. When the state makes the choices you soon find that there are not only no choices, but that the one choice dictated is limited and only a select few have real access.
Free Markets also mean opportunity for the individual to prosper and thrive. The opportunity for individual expression and advancement are limited only by the limits you place on yourself!
Lets here what you think we should call our Anti-Market Apparatchiks friends.
Anti-Market Apparatchiks was better than anything I could come up with. I like the idea of co-opting the label of “Free Market Fundamentalists”–before the Reagan era, “conservative” also carried a negative connotation. Free Market Fundamentalist sounds like a moniker that Barry Goldwater would’ve worn with pride. The man did say “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”…
1. POTs (Party of Thieves)?
2. Freedom-Hating Elitists?
3. Politburo Parasites?
4. Envy-Mongering Statists?
5. Anti-Philanthopy Bolsheviks?
6. Champagne Stalinists?
7. Prosperity Prohibitionists?
8. Gangland Bureaucrats?
9. Consensual Exchange Parasites?
10.Anti-entrepreneurship Guilt Fetishists?
Well … So far, yours is the best. Anti-Market Apparatchiks it is!
How about calling us PABPA, which stands for “People Against Boiling People Alive.”
Seriously, you badly mistake the motives of the left, at least as far as I’m concerned. Having started and run several successful businesses over the past 30 years, I am quite sure I have no basic “anti-market” bias. What I’m against is the kind of gross extremism the word “fundamentalism” implies. The kind of extremism that allows a person to write something like this:
“If boiling people alive best served the interests of the American people, then it would neither be moral or immoral.” Max Borders, Civitas Institute
PS. I hope you take Mr. Tabor’s advice and go for it. That would be a never-ending gift.
How about Economic Fairness Progressives? Like James, I am a capitalist who competes in the market on a daily basis. I am a small business owner with 20 full-time employees. I meet payroll every two weeks and provide generouus health and retirement benefits. So no, I am not anti-market, although I am in a unique position to witness many of the cruel inequities of the healthcare marketplace.
How about just call them the Marxists that they really are?
…here I sit, in my Che Guevara T-shirt reading my Little Red Book, planning for the revolution that I could inspire if only the top marginal tax rate could be raised from 35% to 40%…
Heh. I was wondering who stole my Little Red Book.
Commie.
Comrade to you, pal.