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In the spirit of Seinfeld’s Festivus, the holiday “for the rest of us,” I proffer Libertymás. It’s Spanglish for “more liberty” rather than short for liberty’s mass, a la Michaelmas. (The key is that little mark above the a.)
Every holiday needs its lore and its special activities, television shows, songs, and such. Obviously, Libertymás must feature a Liberty Pole but beyond that, its holiday culture remains an open market, except where intellectual property rights kill the fun. Thankfully, I have a song in mind for Libertymás that follows “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” which is in the public domain.
For the sake of everyone’s sanity, I will not sing it and will only offer the final verse of this (in)famous cumulative song:
On the twelfth day of Libertymás, reason gave to us
Twelve new episodes of South Park a year
Eleven refutations of the Green New Deal and MMT
Ten consecutive years of balanced budgets
Nine ways of reforming healthcare and insurance
Eight mechanisms for protecting free expression
Seven substitutes for Social Security
Six solid checks against arbitrary government
Five reasons to return to goooooooold
Four easy ways to fix higher education
Three percent real per capita GDP growth
Two defunct political parties
And a Classical Liberal in the White House!
Of course not all things Christmas can be adapted easily to Libertymás. It’s a Wonderful Life just wouldn’t work if the Federal Reserve did its job and acted as a lender of last resort, thus turning the “Great Depression” into the “Recession of 1929-30” and Hoover into a two-termer. The whole gift “giving” thing would probably have to go, too.
Ironically, Libertymás could be more in tune with Christianity than Christmas, as currently practiced in most American households. As Jeffrey Tucker recently pointed out, Mary and Joseph were stuck in that manger because of an onerous tax, and the same tyrannical government carried out the crucifixion.
“Christian liberty” is a complex concept but closer to the spirit of Libertymás than the rampant commercialization of Christ’s Mass. Shouldn’t we celebrate something good, liberty, and approach the state torture and execution of a young man simply for his words with more solemnity? I’m not saying, I’m just saying.
Merry Libertymás!
Robert E. Wright
Robert E. Wright is the Nef Family Chair of Political Economy at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is the author of 18 books, including a new book on financial exclusion published by AIER.
