Kevin S. Decker writes (May 5), “My socialist ideas urge me to point out that the Constitution doesn’t guarantee any particular type of economic system …”

Sorry, Kevin, but it does. The 5th and 14th amendments provide that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

“Due process of law” means being convicted of a crime or found liable for damages in a civil judgment. That implicitly guarantees economic freedom, since each person retains his natural liberty to practice the trade or profession of his choosing, freely enter into economic relationships with other consenting adults on any mutually agreeable terms, and retain and use his legitimately acquired property in accordance with his own preferences and in pursuit of his own happiness, as long as no one else’s rights are violated. Any “economic system” contrived by government incompatible with those natural liberties is constitutionally barred.

The “socialist idea” reflects a wistful longing for the tribal form of social organization which humans began to abandon 10,000 years ago in favor of civilization. It is an atavism, and it’s time we outgrew it.

Unfortunately, much more blood will likely be shed before we do.

G.E. Morton

Spokane