freedom

The following article was originally published by Illinois Review.

When President Obama questioned a business owner’s role in the success of his company, he questioned more than who gets credit for what. He questioned private property itself. If “you didn’t build that,” do you really even own it?

As grand as the Great Pyramids and the Roman Coliseum are, there’s something profoundly unsettling on reflecting that they were built on the backs of slaves. If you and I were properly indoctrinated, we’d feel the same indignation when we looked at the Sears Tower or the Space Needle.

Because, we’re told, businesses are the Bain of our existence. Our employer may press a paycheck into our sweaty, calloused hands, but he’s paying only a fraction of what is rightfully ours. We’ll claim the whole shebang when the workers unite. Then we’ll collectivize… and restratify?

President Obama’s administration isn’t hostile to all businesses, only those that don’t toe the line. If things continue as they have been, a business’s position in the heap will depend on their leaders’ ideology. Everything belongs to the federal government, but that need not be overemphasized if everyone plays their part. The divide between private and public can be blurred when the government and the businesses’ values are aligned.

Rahm Emanuel may take issue with Chick-fil-A, but he certainly doesn’t have a problem with another cow-bedecked chain. When Jostein Solheim became the new CEO of the company, he pointed out: “My mantra that I’ve repeated a hundred times since starting at Ben & Jerry’s is: ‘Change is a wonderful thing. The world needs dramatic change to address the social and environmental challenges we are facing. Values led businesses can play a critical role in driving that positive change. We need to lead by example, and prove to the world that this is the best way to run a business. Historically, this company has been and must continue to be a pioneer to continually challenge how business can be a force for good and address inequities inherent in global business.”

As Benjamin Bull from American Thinker has pointed out, Ben & Jerry’s can sell “Hubby-Hubby” or “A-ppley Ever After” ice cream to promote homosexual “marriage,” but Don Cathy of Chick-fil-A’s better not breathe the faintest murmur against the practice. It’s “Have it your way” as long as it’s their way, and “I’m lovin’ it” as long it advances the agenda flavor of the day.

What’s most important isn’t the ability for a company to survive without government, but it’s willingness to cohabitate with it. Anything’s sustainable, as long as there’s taxpayers to pay for it. General Motors went bankrupt and sacrificed the value of its employees’ pensions, the Chevy Cruze is quite literally going up in flames, but what difference does it make? General Electric maintains a close interdependency with the Obama administration, and its justifications max out the baloney meter, but what’s the impetus to change? Success as a business is guaranteed, when the proper political connections are made.

All this can last as long as Americans are willing to contribute without being allowed to choose, and as long as there’s enough hosts to support the hangers-on. Not to worry. As President Obama said, “There are a whole bunch of hard-working people out there.”