Challenges the Government Faces to Guarantee Freedom and Equality in Business

Please strictly follow the instructions and rubrics to write a essay. Make sure to get as many points as possible, so you don't need to revise too much for the final version.

I've been struggling with my feelings about asking you to use the Declaration of Independence as your starting point for a discussion of what an ideal government might be like.  This document has had tremendous influence in the world.  And yet, here are a few of my reservations:

Nothing is self-evident when it comes to the nature of living things, human and otherwise, except that we all want to live.

Governments are not formed out of thin air to serve the needs of their citizens.  They come into existence in the messiest of ways, representing at best some sort of compromise between present realities and dreams of a better future.

Neither the American Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution were written in the capitalist era.  Our world is very different from Thomas Jefferson’s and our central issue may be said to be the tension between our economic and political systems.   

If we are to consider what might be, in the case of the United States, we must remember that, even at the moment when the signers of the Declaration of Independence espoused the ideals of equality, realities on the ground were very different.

Throughout its history, the United States has toggled between 2 conflicting principles: the principle of democracy and the principle of oligarchy.

If we are looking at the world as a citizen of China, or Russia, or Iran, or Cuba, we must understand that not every dream is an American dream.

I know very little of China, but I have to think that we can find the same tension there between the pieties of the Communist Party and the incredible power of the Communist Party, not to mention the great fortunes which are being made by individuals.

I will be asking you, therefore, to write your final paper considering the challenges faced by a government which seeks to guarantee both the effective workings of free enterprise (or some form of free enterprise) and the well-being of all its citizens.  Your paper can be set in the United States, in China, or wherever you choose to set it, including a utopia which you invent.  The assignment and rubric are now posted.  I have not yet posted an assignment and rubric for the second draft, but I will post that very soon.

The assignment is a paper which you are welcome to write with or without reference to anything you have read.  If you go to Module 7 and look at the assignment, you will notice that the prompt has changed.  I found myself worrying that the Declaration of Independence might not be a useful starting point for your paper, and so what I am asking you to do is to consider this problem: how do we permit and encourage entrepreneurial activity (call it capitalism?) and still protect the rights of all citizens, some (or many?) of whom may not reap much benefit from the wealth being generated by those who are driving the economy.

You can set this paper in the US, in China, in any place you choose including a place of your own invention (a utopia).  You may cite any author you choose, but you may write this article based exclusively on your own ideas.  The 1st draft is due on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 11:59 PM.  The 2nd draft is due at the end of the semester at a date to be announced.  Your grade for this final paper will be the sum of your grades on the 1st and 2nd drafts.  You’ll see a prompt and a rubric.

The prompt asks you to write a 5-paragraph essay describing the challenges a government must face in guaranteeing both freedom and equality in business.  If you only protect freedom, the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom may be extreme.  Not everyone can be Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.  If you only protect equality, you may be able to legislate wonderful salaries for everyone at Amazon, but you must consider how long Amazon will be in business once you have demoted Jeff Bezos to the mailroom.

You are welcome to write your essay in any way you choose so long as you follow the 5-paragraph format laid out in the rubric.

You are welcome to describe an existing business or economic system or to imagine your own utopia.

One way for you to consider this topic is to ponder the lives of Larry Sills and Maddie Parlier in the article by Adam Davidson entitled, “Making it in America.”

Larry did not exactly compete for the job of CEO at Standard Motor Products.  His family has run the company for 100 years.  And yet, whatever you might think of the process whereby Larry became CEO, he seems to be very good at his job.  He guided the company through at least 1 major recession.  He has managers in place who assess the profitability every day of every department in the company.  SMP makes money and appears to be stable, but only through extremely careful management.  Should the board of directors of SMP have the freedom to hire and retain Larry, even though there has never been any open competition for his seat?  Should Larry have the freedom to run the company as he sees fit?  Should government have any say in the way Standard Motor Products is run?

Consider now the case of Maddie Parlier.  Maddie was once an honors student in high school, but now she is a single mother, very glad to have a Level 1 position at SMP but with no time or money to get the extra training she needs if she is ever to advance to Level 2.  Would you like for there to be a way for Maddie to advance over time?  What about Maddie’s safety at work?  Medical insurance?  Larry may not believe he can help Maddie in any way without reducing the profitability of the company.  Would you like to require SMP to provide training or any other good things for any of its workers?  Do you believe that government should play a role in any of this or would you like to keep government out?

Notice that the SMP example is set in the right-to-work (no unions) state of South Carolina in the United States today.  Other settings might work differently.  But here is the constant: children have different abilities.  Parents offer differing support systems.  Some economic ventures flourish.  Some go under.  In the face of the world’s propensity to produce winners and losers, how should government guarantee freedom and equality?