Philosophy

Proprietarianism

(Pronounced: pro-pry-uh-tarry-an-ism. From the word "proprietor". It means the belief in personal ownership)

What is it?
Why do we need it?

"We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs, but to secure liberty for their souls." Robert J. McCracken


Proprietarianism means --

• Citizens in control of their lives, their families and their communities
• Lower taxes and crime rates
• Better education for our children and affordable medical care for everyone

Proprietarianism is an economic, and social perspective that returns ownership of government, businesses, and institutions to citizens. It is a philosophy that maintains we are not just a nation of people, but a nation of people working for our common good.
Three basis premises of Proprietarianism are --

• A government is the servant of its people.
• Every citizen has the right to enter into business and expect to profit
• It should cost no more to be poor than it does to be rich

Our way of Life --
The greater part of history of all hitherto existing society is not the history of class struggles. Rather it is the largely unwritten story of people struggling to get along in their daily lives.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, have stood sometimes in opposition to one another, sometimes shoulder to shoulder. Often in different classes, but always the common struggle of daily life.
Everywhere in history, we find complicated social arrangements of various groups established to ease our unceasing struggles. In the United States today we are divided into two main political groups. These groups which were initially established as devices to help ease social problems have, in recent years, decayed from within through special interest and intrigue and are actually adding to the burden of the citizen's struggle.
The Republican Party in the United States today advocates, supports and is supported by big businesses and big industries. The Democratic Party advocates, supports and is supported by big labor and big public institutions. Both thrive in governments that are far larger than necessary to best serve citizens. Neither approach represents the average American citizen very well. Both, however, have become machines well suited to removing power and wealth from ordinary citizens and placing it in the hands of a few.
Our national founders set a wonderful table of opportunity for us. We have, in recent years, moved off that table and have contented ourselves with things which have fallen to the floor and in doing so, we miss the banquet. We complain that our schools, medical delivery system, corporations, criminal justice system, government and our political system are failing yet we continue to eat from the floor.
There is another way to carry on our social and economic business. There is a way that returns wealth, power and purpose to the people -- a way that really does help to ease the burden of our daily lives. That way is Proprietarianism.
The word Proprietarianism comes from the word Proprietor and it means a belief in private ownership. That belief establishes the direction of the Proprietarian philosophy and is, essentially, the antithesis of our current failing socio-economic system.
Proprietarianism is an economic perspective, but it is also a way of government, a way of doing business and a way of life.
The Proprietarian philosophy allows expression of our needs as human beings. It is capitalistic in that it assumes such fundamentals as drive, ownership, personal control, individualism, competition and accumulation of wealth, but it also assumes things not commonly found in modern capitalism such as compassion, altruism, honesty, integrity and the common brotherhood of man.
To implement Proprietarianism requires no great economic coup nor does it require structural changes in our government -- it merely requires reassessment, refinement and the willingness to move our current system in a better direction.
Proprietarianism is not new. It has, in fact, been a foundational block in this nation until recent years. It is a concept that is easily grasped and movement toward that philosophy would be understood and welcomed by many people. A few, however, will reject, condemn, belittle and attempt to divert such a movement because their wealth is based in the status quo -- in continuing in a direction that is bad for our nation and especially bad for the majority of its inhabitants.
Many aspects of our current system are failing to deliver the promises left us by our founders. Some of these parts are decaying -- decaying because of stifling regulation and dullness due to lack of competition. With the exception of coloring and trim many of our systems and products which appear to be widely diverse actually suffer from sameness. We are left with few real choices. This is readily illustrated:

• News reporters tend to report the same things, from the same perspective and in the same style.
• One can of beans in a supermarket is indistinguishable from another except for the label on the can.
• Automobiles are essentially the same with minor variations between models and manufacturers
• One institution or agency is very much like another.
• One politician is like another.
• One student is about as uneducated as another.

We content ourselves with a wide assortment of choices that are not real and have been led into thinking that they are. These things have come about through economic pressures. The less variation there is in a product or service, the easier and more economical it is to produce or manage. This rule can be applied beneficially or detrimentally. A large collection of goods or services all made to be the same is a detrimental application. Many small groups of goods or services - each allowed to be different, but containing similar elements is a more beneficial application.
Real competition is a fundamental tenet of Proprietarian economics. If a business, institution, school, agency or organization cannot compete then it probably needs to be regulated. Competition is heavily preferred over regulation. Regulation should only be used when a competitive environment cannot be established.
A democracy is not an efficient form of government in terms of costs and administration, but can be extremely efficient in anthroplenic terms. Anthropleny can be defined as those things in a human society which allow citizens to live long, cooperative, purposeful, fulfilled lives.
While economic efficiency and anthropleny are not mutually exclusive they are often found to be inversely related. Improvements in economic efficiency often result in lower levels of anthropleny.
Proprietarianism is an economic and social perspective that emphasizes giving greater control to citizens.
In the United States we hold out the dream that if we work hard enough we will be successful. That does happen, but it happens so rarely as to be almost non-existent. Making that dream a real possibility for many more citizens is a functional objective of Proprietarianism.
There is a need for large corporations. It would be very difficult to engage in large projects without them. However large corporations can be like the "tail that wags the dog". Large corporations should not be the foundation of our business community. When such corporations change direction, falter or fail, thousands of families can be adversely affected.
There is a cooperative element within the human psyche and there is a need for a complimentary socialist element in our culture to care for and assist those who are not succeeding in their lives or businesses. Such an altruistic compassionate element should be held up as wonderful and necessary function, but it does not function well as the cornerstone of social interchange.
The foundation and basis of a natural human society should be compassionate competition. Compassionate competition is a fundamental element of Proprietarianism.
A Proprietarianistic view would hold that every citizen has the right to enter into business if he or she chooses to do so and it would hold that we are not a nation of individuals, but rather a nation of brothers and sisters working for our common good. Only in this way we can truly live the Marxian ideal "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
Smaller businesses may not amass the enormous profits of their larger brothers, but they can spread the wealth of our nation out and provide an excellent life for many more people than the current system is capable of doing.