Trust Yourself, Not the Government
Too many people have for too long placed too much confidence and trust
in government and not enough in themselves. Fortunately, many are now
becoming aware
of the seriousness of the gross mistakes of the past several decades.
The blame is shared by both political parties. Many Americans now are
demanding to
hear the plain truth of things and want the demagoguing to stop. Without
this first step, solutions are impossible.
Seeking the truth and finding the answers in liberty and self-reliance
promotes the optimism necessary for restoring prosperity. The task is
not that
difficult if politics doesn't get in the way.
We have allowed ourselves to get into such a mess for various reasons.
Politicians deceive themselves as to how wealth is produced. Excessive
confidence is placed in the judgment of politicians and bureaucrats.
This replaces
the confidence in a free society. Too many in high places of authority
became convinced that only they, armed with arbitrary government power,
can bring
about fairness, while facilitating wealth production. This always proves
to be a utopian dream and destroys wealth and liberty. It impoverishes
the people
and rewards the special interests who end up controlling both political
parties.
It's no surprise then that much of what goes on in Washington is driven
by aggressive partisanship and power seeking, with philosophic
differences being
minor.
Economic Ignorance
Economic ignorance is commonplace. Keynesianism continues to thrive,
although today it is facing healthy and enthusiastic rebuttals.
Believers in military
Keynesianism and domestic Keynesianism continue to desperately promote
their failed policies, as the economy languishes in a deep slumber.
Supporters of all government edicts use humanitarian arguments to justify them.
Humanitarian arguments are always used to justify government mandates
related to the economy, monetary policy, foreign policy, and personal
liberty. This
is on purpose to make it more difficult to challenge. But, initiating
violence for humanitarian reasons is still violence. Good intentions are
no excuse
and are just as harmful as when people use force with bad intentions.
The results are always negative.
The immoral use of force is the source of man's political problems.
Sadly, many religious groups, secular organizations, and psychopathic
authoritarians
endorse government initiated force to change the world. Even when the
desired goals are well-intentioned—or especially when
well-intentioned—the results
are dismal. The good results sought never materialize. The new problems
created require even more government force as a solution. The net result
is
institutionalizing government initiated violence and morally justifying
it on humanitarian grounds.
This is the same fundamental reason our government uses force for
invading other countries at will, central economic planning at home, and
the regulation
of personal liberty and habits of our citizens.
It is rather strange, that unless one has a criminal mind and no respect
for other people and their property, no one claims it's permissible to
go into
one's neighbor's house and tell them how to behave, what they can eat,
smoke and drink or how to spend their money.
Yet, rarely is it asked why it is morally acceptable that a stranger
with a badge and a gun can do the same thing in the name of law and
order. Any
resistance is met with brute force, fines, taxes, arrests, and even
imprisonment. This is done more frequently every day without a proper
search warrant.
No Government Monopoly over Initiating Violence
Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but legalizing a
government monopoly for initiating aggression can only lead to
exhausting liberty associated
with chaos, anger, and the breakdown of civil society. Permitting such
authority and expecting saintly behavior from the bureaucrats and the
politicians is
a pipe dream. We now have a standing army of armed bureaucrats in the
TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corp of Engineers, etc.,
numbering over
100,000. Citizens are guilty until proven innocent in the
unconstitutional administrative courts.
Government in a free society should have no authority to meddle in
social activities or the economic transactions of individuals. Nor
should government
meddle in the affairs of other nations. All things peaceful, even when
controversial, should be permitted.
We must reject the notion of prior restraint in economic activity just
as we do in the area of free speech and religious liberty. But even in
these areas
government is starting to use a backdoor approach of political
correctness to regulate speech—a dangerous trend. Since 9/11 monitoring
speech on the
internet is now a problem since warrants are no longer required.
The Proliferation of Federal Crimes
The Constitution established four federal crimes. Today the experts
can't even agree on how many federal crimes are now on the books—they
number into the
thousands. No one person can comprehend the enormity of the legal
system—especially the tax code. Due to the ill-advised drug war and
the endless federal
expansion of the criminal code we have over 6 million people under
correctional suspension, more than the Soviets ever had, and more than
any other nation
today, including China. I don’t understand the complacency of the
Congress and the willingness to continue their obsession with passing
more Federal laws.
Mandatory sentencing laws associated with drug laws have compounded our
prison problems.
The federal register is now 75,000 pages long and the tax code has
72,000 pages, and expands every year. When will the people start
shouting, "enough is
enough," and demand Congress cease and desist.
Achieving Liberty
Liberty can only be achieved when government is denied the aggressive
use of force. If one seeks liberty, a precise type of government is
needed. To
achieve it, more than lip service is required.
Two choices are available.
1.A government designed to protect liberty—a natural right—as its sole
objective. The people are expected to care for themselves and reject the
use of any
force for interfering with another person's liberty. Government is given
a strictly limited authority to enforce contracts, property ownership,
settle
disputes, and defend against foreign aggression.
2.A government that pretends to protect liberty but is granted power to
arbitrarily use force over the people and foreign nations. Though the
grant of
power many times is meant to be small and limited, it inevitably
metastasizes into an omnipotent political cancer. This is the problem
for which the world
has suffered throughout the ages. Though meant to be limited it
nevertheless is a 100 percent sacrifice of a principle that
would-be-tyrants find
irresistible. It is used vigorously—though incrementally and
insidiously. Granting power to government officials always proves the
adage that: "power
corrupts."
Once government gets a limited concession for the use of force to mold
people’s habits and plan the economy, it causes a steady move toward
tyrannical
government. Only a revolutionary spirit can reverse the process and deny
to the government this arbitrary use of aggression. There's no
in-between.
Sacrificing a little liberty for imaginary safety always ends badly.
Today's mess is a result of Americans accepting option #2, even though the Founders attempted to give us Option #1.
The results are not good. As our liberties have been eroded our wealth
has been consumed. The wealth we see today is based on debt and a
foolish
willingness on the part of foreigners to take our dollars for goods and
services. They then loan them back to us to perpetuate our debt system.
It's
amazing that it has worked for this long but the impasse in Washington,
in solving our problems indicate that many are starting to understand
the
seriousness of the world-wide debt crisis and the dangers we face. The
longer this process continues the harsher the outcome will be.
The Financial Crisis Is a Moral Crisis
Many are now acknowledging that a financial crisis looms but few
understand it's, in reality, a moral crisis. It's the moral crisis that
has allowed our
liberties to be undermined and permits the exponential growth of illegal
government power. Without a clear understanding of the nature of the
crisis it
will be difficult to prevent a steady march toward tyranny and the
poverty that will accompany it.
Ultimately, the people have to decide which form of government they
want; option #1 or option #2. There is no other choice. Claiming there
is a choice of a
"little" tyranny is like describing pregnancy as a "touch of pregnancy."
It is a myth to believe that a mixture of free markets and government
central
economic planning is a worthy compromise. What we see today is a result
of that type of thinking. And the results speak for themselves.
A Culture of Violence
America now suffers from a culture of violence. It's easy to reject the
initiation of violence against one's neighbor but it's ironic that the
people
arbitrarily and freely anoint government officials with monopoly power
to initiate violence against the American people—practically at will.
Because it's the government that initiates force, most people accept it
as being legitimate. Those who exert the force have no sense of guilt.
It is
believed by too many that governments are morally justified in
initiating force supposedly to "do good." They incorrectly believe that
this authority has
come from the "consent of the people." The minority, or victims of
government violence never consented to suffer the abuse of government
mandates, even
when dictated by the majority. Victims of TSA excesses never consented
to this abuse.
This attitude has given us a policy of initiating war to "do good," as
well. It is claimed that war, to prevent war for noble purposes, is
justified. This
is similar to what we were once told that: "destroying a village to save
a village" was justified. It was said by a U.S. Secretary of State that
the loss
of 500,000 Iraqis, mostly children, in the 1990s, as a result of
American bombs and sanctions, was "worth it" to achieve the "good" we
brought to the Iraqi
people. And look at the mess that Iraq is in today.
Government use of force to mold social and economic behavior at home and
abroad has justified individuals using force on their own terms. The
fact that
violence by government is seen as morally justified, is the reason why
violence will increase when the big financial crisis hits and becomes a
political
crisis as well.
First, we recognize that individuals shouldn't initiate violence, then
we give the authority to government. Eventually, the immoral use of
government
violence, when things go badly, will be used to justify an individual's
"right" to do the same thing. Neither the government nor individuals
have the moral
right to initiate violence against another yet we are moving toward the
day when both will claim this authority. If this cycle is not reversed
society will
break down.
When needs are pressing, conditions deteriorate and rights become
relative to the demands and the whims of the majority. It's then not a
great leap for
individuals to take it upon themselves to use violence to get what they
claim is theirs. As the economy deteriorates and the wealth
discrepancies
increase—as are already occurring—violence increases as those in need
take it in their own hands to get what they believe is theirs. They will
not wait for
a government rescue program.
When government officials wield power over others to bail out the
special interests, even with disastrous results to the average citizen,
they feel no
guilt for the harm they do. Those who take us into undeclared wars with
many casualties resulting, never lose sleep over the death and
destruction their
bad decisions caused. They are convinced that what they do is morally
justified, and the fact that many suffer just can't be helped.
When the street criminals do the same thing, they too have no remorse,
believing they are only taking what is rightfully theirs. All moral
standards become
relative. Whether it's bailouts, privileges, government subsidies or
benefits for some from inflating a currency, it's all part of a process
justified by a
philosophy of forced redistribution of wealth. Violence, or a threat of
such, is the instrument required and unfortunately is of little concern
of most
members of Congress.
Some argue it's only a matter of "fairness" that those in need are cared
for. There are two problems with this. First, the principle is used to
provide a
greater amount of benefits to the rich than to the poor. Second, no one
seems to be concerned about whether or not it's fair to those who end up
paying for
the benefits. The costs are usually placed on the backs of the middle
class and are hidden from the public eye. Too many people believe
government handouts
are free, like printing money out of thin air, and there is no cost.
That deception is coming to an end. The bills are coming due and that's
what the
economic slowdown is all about.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of
force by government. It is the tool for telling the people how to live,
what to eat
and drink, what to read and how to spend their money.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be
understood and rejected. Granting to government even a small amount of
force is a
dangerous concession.
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