What is American Individualism?

Individualism is a political ideology based on Natural Law birthed out of the Age of Enlightenment through the works by John Locke and others of his time.  Individualism is associated with traditional American values such as personal freedom, capitalism and limited government.

Since it's inception through the words of the Declaration of Independence, Americans have been unique around the world with their love of enterprise and pride in personal freedom as a result of our "Rugged Individualism".

Capitalism from an Individualist standpoint is one of free market exchanges, whether of goods or services, under the one's own natural right to contract and trade the product of one's own labor with others.

Not to be confused with the Crony Capitalism or Corporatism that is established and protected by the state and typically protects the owners from any financial or legal liability of the organization's actions leaving an unethical and unaccountable environment in it's place. Generally this legal anomaly ends up privatizing profits while requiring the public to fund the expenses and losses. This only serves rich oligarchs and those with political influence and breeds massive corruption in society. It is commonly seen in public-private partnerships.

In close, I believe most people understand the basics of right and wrong and public law is not required to be more than a page, not 500,000 pages to create mass confusion. All other matters can be handled privately as individuals create rules and agreements with each other for their mutual benefit. And the collective is always stronger than the individual so it is a no brainer that the rights of an individual must be protected from the passions and greed of a collective group.

“What is true of every member of the society individually, is true of them all collectively, since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.”
-Thomas Jefferson's letter to James Madison, Paris September 6. 1789