July 4th: The Holiday of American Business

What is the most important American holiday for business? Some would argue it is the annual Christmas crescendo or the Mother’s Day construction, but the purest form of holiday for American business is the Fourth of July.The holiday marks the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that trumpets neither nationalism nor conflict. Rather, it is a tribute to the individual and all that an individual pursues, including, specifically, business interests. The natural enemies of the individual and business are not other individuals or other businesses but quite simply the excesses of government.The Declaration of Independence is an indictment of the excesses of government. Its words rang true for individuals and businesses of the 18th century, and they echo true today not only in America but anywhere that individuals and businesses face the tyranny of government.The Declaration of Independence emphasizes the limitations on the exercise of any form of government and the necessity of government being conditional on the consent of the governed. Local government is preferable to more distant government, and the latter should not interfere with the former. The words and the language of the Declaration are pro-business, not the foundation for local soviet collectivists. The signers were all either full- or part-time businessmen; there was not a single full-time politician among them.In its hundreds of words is not a single aspiration for more regulation or more taxes. The Declaration seeks less, not more, government.Imagine a contemporary politician complaining about a government for “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world” or even some parts of the world. Then, as now, most trade was conducted by businesses, and those businesses were dismayed by government that restricted trade.Today, many of our politicians will lecture us about the need for less trade rather than more. These modern-day King Georges are distant from the needs of ordinary Americans who would willingly cut us off from large parts of the world.Or imagine a politician today complaining about a government for “imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” Taxes in the 18th century, like many today, were paid by consumers and collected at least partly by wholesale and retail businesses. They objected to taxes not merely because they were passed without consent but because they existed at all. It was no comfort to Americans that Englishmen paid even more taxes.The taxes of which America’s founders complained were, by modern standards, small and seemingly inconsequential. They paid a few excise taxes on stamps and tea, but faced nothing remotely similar to income taxes, or corporate taxes, or any of the endless taxes that frame much of contemporary business. We take innumerable taxes for granted and pay them as cheerfully as we can. Our forefathers had much less equanimity for any single tax, much less a combination of them.In 18th-century America, most politicians would have been circumspect about supporting even one tax. Today, our politicians are circumspect about criticizing even one tax among an endless multitude, so ingrained have taxes become in our society.In criticizing King George, the Americans also focused on foreign sovereignty: “He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws.” Irish voters no doubt had a similar inkling when they recently refrained from the Treaty of Lisbon.Like much of American business today, our founders were strictly pro-immigration. They complained that King George “has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither.” They did not equivocate to allow some people to immigrate and not others. A nation that sees its greatest days ahead seeks to enlarge itself; a nation that sees its glory faded seeks to retreat.Throughout, the Declaration evokes unalloyed optimism. It sees goodness in individuals and their endeavors, and it sees merit in government only to the extent it has the consent of the governed. Taxes are dubious; regulation is unwanted; trade is good; growth is good; business is good; better times are ahead.The 4th of July is truly the holiday for American business.A former FCC commissioner, Mr. Furchtgott-Roth is president of Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises. He can be reached at hfr@furchtgott-roth.com.

July 4th: The Holiday of American Business

July 4th: The Holiday of American Business

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