Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility

For those we lost, We will not forget 09/11/2001

“Our God given unalienable rights are given to us all as individuals. They tell us what me may do for ourselves, and they are the embodiment of liberty. The so-called rights that government gives to some of us are parcelled out to select groups as classes. They tell us what one class of people may require another to do for them, and they are the very essence of slavery.”
— Perri Nelson, February 9, 2010

A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh?

A simple observation on the nature of law and government

Published Fri, Aug 22 2008 8:13 PM

It occurs to me that there's a simple way to determine whether or not a person truly believes in liberty and freedom or not. Simply observe whether they believe that we need more laws to regulate behavior, speech, or not. Simply observe whether they support more or larger government programs or not. This isn't a foolproof measure of a person's love for liberty, but it's likely to be a good indicator.

It seems to me that the intent of most laws is to restrict the ability to act in certain ways. Failure to abide by the restrictions of law typically carries a penalty. Well, that's usually the case.

In some cases, laws are necessary for the protection of society. They restrict actions that would in general be detrimental to society. For example, most people (although certainly not all people) would probably agree that a person that intentionally kills another person is a danger to society. Because of this, we have laws that make the intentional killing of another person a criminal act and that specify punishment for it — usually the removal of the killer from society, either by imprisonment or execution.

In other cases, laws are not necessary for the protection of society. Rather, they restrict actions that would in general be beneficial to society. I can think of quite a few such laws, although I'm sure that a good many people would argue against my contention that these laws are detrimental to our society. For example, most people in the United States (at least according to recent polls) believe that it is a good idea to try to locate and extract petroleum from domestic sources, and yet we have laws that prohibit doing this very thing.

Ask yourself a simple question. “What does government produce?” Each time I ask myself this question, I cannot name a single beneficial thing to answer it. On the other hand, I can think of a great many examples where our government restricts production.

Let's make it more specific shall we? Does government produce medicines? Does it produce computers? Does it produce airplanes? Does it produce food? Does it produce cell phones, electronics, cars, air conditioners, furnaces, stoves, refrigerators, light bulbs (especially those compact fluorescent that are being mandated by governments), toilet paper, or any of the other things that we use every day? Government produces none of these things. They are all, each and every one of them produced by private enterprises.

Does government perform surgeries? Does it mount and balance your tires and insure their proper inflation? Does it tune your car for you? Does it refine fuel and put it in your gas tank? Does it harvest the crops that you eat? Does government serve your meals in a restaurant? Does it wash the dishes or bus your table? Does government keep a convenience store operating into the night so that you can make those last minute late night purchases? Government performs none of these services for you. They are all, each and every one of them performed by private individuals.

Every one of these products and services is regulated by government. Government taxes them all.

Consider this, if the government takes over health care, they still won't produce the medications. If the government takes over health care, they still won't perform the diagnoses or the surgeries. But they will ration them. If the government takes over health care, there won't be more of it available, there will be less of it available.

Government doesn't produce things, it regulates and restricts access to them. Government doesn't create efficiencies it creates inefficiencies. Laws don't create liberties, laws restrict liberties. Even our Constitution imposes restrictions — restrictions on our government.

We need laws to restrain those people in our society that would harm others. We need some of the services that our government is responsible for, such as defense, and a unified foreign policy. Our Constitution provides the power to provide those services to the federal government. Our Constitution provides the States with the powers to make laws to handle our social needs. But it also restricts the federal government from doing a great many things that are detrimental to our society.

At least, that's what the framers intended. Consider your candidates for local office. Consider your candidates for state office. Consider your candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate in our federal government. Consider the candidates for the Presidency. Consider carefully the initiatives that might appear on your ballot. Consider all of these things and ask yourself this question — “If I and my fellow voters make this choice, will it enhance or restrict my liberties? If I and my fellow voters make this choice, how will it affect not just us and our generation, but how will it affect the liberties and opportunities of generations to follow?”

Consider those questions carefully. And vote your conscience.

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