Family Empowerment

The diminishment of the family by systems has been a disaster. Whether the system used is capitalism or socialism is of little matter. Either way, the result is a diminished family no longer producing and conserving - but consuming. What the family once did, the system handles now. For thousands of years, families gathered their own food. Now, it is gathered by others and we go to market. Once food was exclusively prepared in the home. Until restaurants began to appear in the 16th century, the only food available outside the home was smoked or jerked meat offered in better taverns. Now, many families eat more fast food out than cooked food at home. Even child care has moved away from the family. Many children spend more time under the care of child care workers and teachers than they spend in the care of their parents. The old extended families often included a midwife. If not, there was always a neighbor midwife to help the family with birth. Birth has now moved completely away from the family and into hospitals. Before there was insurance, there was the family. If a provider died or was disabled, the family came together to support the dependents. If someone fell on hard times, they turned to the family for resources and help. (Actually, as many parents of unemployed twentysomethings will attest, the family is still the only insurance covering homelessness.) Contract law is relatively new. Until recently the family made contracts and paid or collected obligations directly. All wealth is produced by people and all people are produced by the family. The family is the natural economic unit. Not the state, not the church, not the bank or broker. Not so long ago, and for hundreds of years before, nearly all businesses were family firms. Now, the modern corporation has replaced the family firm. This trend, of family disempowerment, is unsustainable. There can be no freedom unless every family is free to produce goods and services and conserve the wealth they earn. If the government can help at all, it is by passing laws giving the family a more even playing field for competing with global corporations, and legal methodologies for conserving family wealth through generations. Still, it will be the individual family that must ultimately reclaim their power.