Business as a Privledge

I recently read a statement that said businesses are privileges granted by the government. I found this idea a bit absurd as if someone was telling me trading milk and sugar with my neighbor should be seen as a privilege granted by a government authority. 

I am very much against the idea that conducting business is a privilege and is only something that can be granted by those who happen to be in power at the time. This statement implies that all interaction with fellow people are blessed by a special group of people who are no morally better than anyone else but have government guns and badges. If I am only given privileged to trade a cup of sugar to my neighbor for a bowl of milk by the pleasure of those in power then how am I free? This strikes at the very heart of personal liberty and property rights. Must every action be blessed by government? All things are rights until we lose them. Also take note that laws are not always enforced and are up to the whims of those who hold the power at any given time. Slavery was mentioned as a government intervention that protects us and of course is something which must be protected against to allow freedom. No man should be allowed to impose his will or take freedom from another. So what does it mean when my life and the products of my life (property) are governed by another? I become a slave. If freedom is nothing more than the mere fact that I can stand in one spot and breathe then what kind of freedom is that? What I spend my energy on, the land I buy, and the things I create are what give me life and they are my liberty. If I cannot choose what to do with them then I am a slave to those who can on my behalf. My life and my efforts are meaningless unless I am free to choose what to do with them. Even if you are a collectivist and believe the whole is more important than the one, it must be obvious that a mass of people just 'living' without meaning is nothing to aspire to. We define our lives by what we do with them. Whether knowledge or the products of our knowledge we must be free to express them.

Doing business is not a privilege of government but an essential right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.