Lefty-righty labels don’t apply to free enterprise any more
I’M SOMETIMES asked, as I was last week, about my bias to the left of the political spectrum. Some may even be a bit confused, wondering how I can possibly write opinion pieces that don’t seem to align with traditional business conservatism. After all, it states at the bottom of each column that I am an entrepreneur, so how, I’m asked, can a “free enterpriser” possibly be a “left winger”?
Let’s begin by saying I am not partial to the left wing, right wing tags. Being labeled a winger on either side of the political fence has a tendency to further polarize opinions, expectations and discussions. It’s a bit like tribalism where the rights, practices and ceremonies of your tribe leave no wiggle room for independent thinking, observation action or acceptance of another tribe. In the extreme it becomes a closed-minded approach version of ‘our way or the highway.’
As an example, the left-winger question of last week seems to imply that being a left leaning free enterprise kind of guy is a complete contradiction in terms and the blend is near impossible. As a result, the obvious conclusion would be I’m either not a businessman or alternatively not the leftie our reader knows or imagines. And I think it has more to do with the imagined left and therein lays the route cause of tribal conflict.
Having started over a dozen companies in the past 40 years, I think I can safely say I am an experienced free enterpriser. In fact, even in retirement, I can’t seem to stop and started and still operate two small businesses since I retired.