Self-interest, rightly understood and pursued is the correct way to reconcile individual interest and the Plato's Republic "noble lie" of political duty. Socrates addressed the primal flaw, that cities needed fierce guardians to protect them from foreign enemies, but were left with no one to protect the cities from the guardians. Now we are left with no one to protect us from the government.
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for their own interests."- Adams Smith in the Wealth of Nations. Free trade is in jeopardy when those who produce are relegated to the a slave class, to work until they perish. Free trade prospers when individuals set the price for goods and services.

I was referring to "free market" as an ideological identifier, not as a currently existing system of trade. By Rand's definition, capitalism does not currently exist as an operational system either.

Thanks for the correction Mike

"To Serve Man" based on a Damon Knight short story. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Ma...)
I

Yup. Do you remember the original Twilight Zone episode "How To Serve Humans"? :-)

I am sorry, Scott, but thumbs down for this. Eric Schmidt does NOT have good credentials. He is some kind of Bilderberger Illuminati controller. Read his biography... then read his father's... He inherited the family business.
"The influential head of Google, Eric Schmidt, has called for civilian drone technology to be regulated, warning about privacy and security concerns. Cheap miniature versions of the unmanned aircraft used by militaries could fall into the wrong hands, he told the UK's Guardian newspaper. Quarrelling neighbours, he suggested, might end up buzzing each other with private surveillance drones. He also warned of the risk of terrorists using the new technology. Mr Schmidt is believed to have close relations with US President Barack Obama, whom he advises on matters of science and technology.” -- BBC Technology News here Touted on Slashdot here
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/04/13/...
from my blog "Drones are Everywhere" here:
http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2013/...

Schmidt earned his doctorate figuring out how to control people online.
His father, Wilson Schmidt of the World Bank here:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=4...
(He died too young - age 54 - in a nightclub fire.)

'Human Resources' is the term you are looking for, I believe.

A point I make in my book "The Decline and Fall of the American Entrepreneur" and KH and I make in our novel "Pendulum of Justice."

Securities laws have always been a way of restraining entrepreneurs and inventors.

Excellent points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Has become. This country was founded on the idea that you own yourself and you therefor own that which you create. That is real free trade.

sadly, yes

excellent points kahnquest. +10

There is no such thing as a free market! Trade is controlled by the government to give advantage to the companies that suck-up to the government.
Our Federal government has become an evil entity devoid of honor. Successful Corporations are those that play the game and bribe our elected Representatives. They have an obligation to their stockholders ( the people ) to do so.We have the best government that money can buy!!

Thanks k. You know when you walk into a butcher shop and they have a drawing of a cow showing all the cuts of meat they can get off of it? That's the way they look at us. Not as thinking reasoning beings but rather as lower classes of animals to be herded in any direction they please.

Guys like Schmidt come from the University of Pull-the-Ladder-Up-Behind-You. Bill Gates is worried about two guys in a garage; this guy works to undermine those two guys. Yes, we need to celebrate capitalism. While we're doing that, he's going to cement his position near the top of the heap and vote for socialism.

We don't have capitalism in this country. Capitalism requires free markets and we don't have those either. What we have is an ever growing government the picks economic winners and losers instead of refereeing the game with honor and integrity.

Also known as corporatocracy (fascism).

That's a nice trick. I'm with you on the principle. Any way to shake that footprint is a tremendous tool.

exactly. Main thing accomplished with Sarbanes-Oxley in the US.

Eric Schmidt = Orren Boyle on steroids

Isn't "crony-capitalism" just a polite way of saying fascism?
The Economist: "The number of public companies has dropped dramatically in the Anglo-Saxon world—by 38% since 1997 in America and by 48% in Britain's main markets. The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in America dropped from an average of 311 a year in 1980-2000 to just 81 in 2011 (chart 2)."

thank you for the tip gonzo!

I get around Google by using StartPage search engine as a proxy. The search is done on Google but they don't report the IP address of the requester. You have the option of using Ixquick to view the page by proxy. I don't have anything to hide but I don't like having my internet footprints logged anywhere. It's the principle of it that gets me.

That is interesting. They are clearly stepping over the line. They run a search engine and email service. All their data collection, including Google Earth, are attempts to micromanage society in a new way without understanding the true nature of production. They are still looking at money and resources as though are finite. That just isn't the case.