I don’t understand why the political “Left” has been so critical of the business system. Businessmen, after all, have been the most effective promoters of state socialism in America. Witness today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the power of the federal government to force cattle producers to pay $1 per head of beef for fees to promote cattle disease research and advertising for beef products, a decision hailed by some cattle producers and criticized by others. Justice Scalia characterized the program as one of “government speech,” and thus not subject to First Amendment scrutiny. That the government should enjoy free speech protection is not the only expression of intellectual corruption in this opinion. This government program – fostered by industry members – is but another marginal example of how so many businessmen are prepared to use state power to take property from private owners to promote their collective interests. This socialistic practice – not some strange notion of government free speech – is what should have been addressed.

As the observant John T. Flynn stated nearly four decades ago, “most of the laws that control or hamper business have been passed . . . at the demand of business itself.” A Kansas farmer was more succinct in declaring “I have heard more socialism preached at meetings of commercial bodies than in socialistic gatherings.” If business leaders were to spend more time on Main Street and less time on Pennsylvania Avenue, statism would largely disappear from the American culture.

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