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Personal Freedom And Capitalism Of The United States

Satisfactory Essays

Econ 160 Term Paper Part 1
Ronny Bejar
Econ 160
Fall 2014

Introduction.
Personal freedom and capitalism go hand-in-hand in America’s rise to economic power. As Friedman (1980) states you cannot have political freedom without economic freedom and by allowing one you provide the opportunity for the other to flourish(p. 2). Early in the history of the United States, the government allowed the market to operate freely and followed The Do Nothing Policy to produce both economic prosperity and freedom for her citizens. By allowing this system to work naturally within the United States, they created a golden age of economics and for a time stood unrivaled at the top. That is until recently China has taken the throne with its ability to ignore political freedom and have economic freedom. As of this year China has surpassed the the United States in GDP by 0.2%, making it the number one economy of the world (Bird, 2014). It is not surprising a country like China would be able to surpass the United States when you look at its raw labor force that it stands on, however it is surprising when compared to the ideas of the Friedman(1980) in that capitalism will bring with it personal freedom. China is a communist country where many of the rights of the people are ignored or even trampled over without a second thought by the controlling party. Much like the other countries bathed in violence and oppressive dictatorships, China should have been not be this successful. Many countries

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