Rick Kelo - All Civil Rights are Ultimately Economic Rights

As a pacifist and prominent Classic Liberal social thinker Rick Kelo is very concerned with human rights and acts by the State that limit human freedom.

Richard Kelo points out a connection often overlooked.  To see the connection first p pick any civil right... maybe free speech?  What does it mean when we say you have free speech?   That means you have free speech in a place where you have an economic ownership interest.  You can say whatever you want in your house, or in a lecture hall that you rent, but you can't barge into someone else's house with a picket sign though because you don't have free speech there.

Rick Kelo

Consider the example of the person who shouts "FIRE!" in the crowded theater.  The reason you can't shout "FIRE!" in a theater when there's no fire is because you're violating property rights - an economic right as Rick Kelo rightly points out.  You're defrauding the theater owner of his revenue & the patrons of the show they purchased.  Freedom of religion follows the same, as do the rest.  For that matter try and figure out how there can be freedom of press when an individual is forbidden by Socialist decree from owning the press.

This applies broadly to overall economic systems just as it does individual examples.  If a government eliminates economic civil rights, like ownership of the means of production, this is why we see the people end up with no social civil rights either.  Workers in every Socialist state are powerless because all civil rights are ultimately economic rights.

Rick Kelo on the Virtue of Charity

As Rick Kelo points out charity is a frequently abused concept.  Politicians often abuse our basic notion of charity as a talking point to advocate something that isn't charitable.

Imagine for a moment that, in the dead of winter, you saw someone give their coat to a homeless man.  You'd consider the giver charitable and probably think well of them.  Now imagine that same cold winter day, but this time someone puts a gun to a passer-bys head and forces him to hand his coat over to the nearest homeless person.  You wouldn't consider the person giving his coat away charitable in that instance.

Rick Kelo - outspoken pacifist

Rick Kelo, as a Classic Liberal, knows that charity is only charity if it is voluntary.  Once it's forced it isn't charity.  "You're free to share anything that you own, but when you share your next door neighbor's car to me that's theft," Rick points out.

So the next time you hear a politician clamoring for a law on the grounds of "charity" ... say free birth control for anyone who wants it, or a bail-out for a mega-bank... remember to keep your natural impulse to be charitable in check because it isn't charity if it involves taking something by force first.

Rick Kelo Talks Locations Socialism Has Been Tried

Most people know that the USSR was Socialist, but did you know Iraq was a Socialist country until the U.S. invaded in 2003?  Rick Kelo, an outspoken advocate of human freedom, has been raising public awareness about what actually constitutes Socialism and where people can look for examples of its usage.

Some of the examples Rick Kelo provided of lesser known countries which were / are socialist include:

• Syria
• Iraq prior to 2003
• India until the 1991 economic reforms
• All Soviet satellite nations
• China prior to 1984
• Afghanistan prior to 1979
• Venezuela
• And a great many African nations that were a breeding ground for Marxism during the Cold War.  Two notable examples being Somalia & Zimbabwe.

Rick A Kelo

Richard Kelo - How Capitalism & Socialism Differ

As American politics slowly becomes more socialistic its important to remember what  really separates Socialism from America's economic tradition: Capitalism.  Rick Kelo feels the real distinction comes in how the two systems treat private property.

The defining hallmarks of Socialism are:

• No legal sanction of private property.
• No legal sanction of contracts.
• Workers can own the use value of capital goods but not the capital value.

No matter what else you consider it to include no form of Socialism can exist without those three things says Kelo.  Consider health care.  If health care is nationalized then the government owns and operates all hospitals, just like it does now with the VA.  If all hospitals only have one owner then it implies that there is no trade.  Right now we know how much a hospital is worth because if Community Health wants to buy a hospital from Hospital Corp. of America, then they will agree on a price.  When the government owns every hospital that can't happen.

That, says Rick Kelo, is an example of all three hallmarks of Socialism.  There is no legal sanction of private property because a government hospital can't be bought by, say, an expanding entrepreneur.  Also, the workers in the hospital can use the equipment, but unlike when the owners of Community Health buying a hospital after which they own the capital value, the workers only own the use value of the government hospital while they're employed there.

Rick Kelo when not deep in thought

Rick Kelo - The State in Free Markets

When most people picture a "free market" they think of a lawless free for all where anything goes.  Not so says Rick Kelo, an economic thinker educated at West Point and at Chicago.

"Market economies exist based upon legal sanction of private property and legal sanction of contract (as a form of property right)," Kelo says.  He remarks that in order to have a free market economy it is necessary for the State to provide courts of law where companies who engage in fraudulent commerce can be made to pay huge sums of money as a punishment to set an example.

He also remarks that it will probably always be a necessary function of government to protect the citizens from violence.  "To maintain a system of private property rights it's necessary for there to be a government.  The reason is we need that government to maintain a military to protect from attacks from outside, and a police force to protect citizen's from attacks on their person or property domestically," says Richard Kelo.

Paul Davidson, Rick Kelo and Lord Robert Skidelsky

Rick Kelo Critiques Socialism in the 21st Century

Have you heard of the concept "Socialism in the 21st Century"?   You can read a brief introduction on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_of_the_21st_century

It is essentially left-wing economic populism.  As an outspoken advocate of peaceful, and voluntary cooperation Rick Kelo has engaged in numerous public debates on the topic of Socialism vs. Capitalism.  He has noticed a common trend among Socialists that closely mirrors the main tenet of the Socialism in the 21st Century platform.  Advocates of Socialism in 2017 seek to distance themselves from the totalitarian Socialist regimes of the 20th century.  So, many try to disguise the fact their economic system is based on force by claiming they advocate a co-op economy.

This doesn't sound alarming to many people.  Richard Kelo though points out the deception at work in these claims.

"Socialism is not about co-ops.  There is nothing about co-ops that is inconsistent with a capitalist economy.  In fact you can find co-ops in most towns in America.  When a Socialist talks about co-ops he is using it as a diversion from his real agenda.  Socialists aren't in favor of co-ops.  They are in favor of an economy of ONLY co-ops where every other form of corporate organization is forcibly outlawed."

Rick Kelo on America's History and Automation

Many people misunderstand the role of automation in improving our daily lives.  When you're trying to decide a question like, "will the new ordering kiosk at McDonald's create unemployment for cashiers?" try taking a bigger picture look.

In 1776 when our nation was founded over 85% of the population was employed in agriculture.  What was the result of that?  We could not have any dentists, engineers, or software programmers.  In the centuries since then we've found new ways to feed ourselves with less than 3% of the population working agriculture.  The result has not been 82% unemployment! The result is that resources (labor among them) are freed to move into more valued and higher paying areas that previously could not exist.

Rick Kelo, Chicago tax recruiter

As a tax recruiter, and the owner of TaxScout, Inc, Rick Kelo has seen first hand the benefit of automation in freeing us from lower value work so we can focus on higher value work.