I am an advocate of limited government. On this blog I have been trying to get others to entertain a dialog on this very thing. However, I am struggling to find my voice and often use a frustrated tone that I feel may be abrasive at times. I often find others that write things much more eloquently than I. The link I have included below is one of those voices. It is a chapter in the Handbook for Policymakers entitled "Limited Government and the Rule of Law" from the Cato Institute. If you are interested in such a thing I encourage you to read it. Although dense the chapter is only 11 pages. If you are not accustomed to reading political history you may find the beginning a bit daunting, however stick with it and pay attention to pages 8-11 as they are the most relevant to our current political environment. I am passionate about this issue and am afraid that many Americans have either never learned the concept of limited government or have forgotten it. I offer this gem to whomever will read it in order to encourage others to restore the limitations written into our federal system. As always everyone is encouraged to comment, question, or debate. Enjoy
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb111/hb111-2.pdf
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
What About Liberty?
So now we’re starting to see the effects of the government economic stimulus and recovery cash injections according to the Whitehouse. The Obama Administration (and his cheerleading squad) of course says it is a success. If you consult “economists” to get an answer you will be sadly disappointed, because most of them contradict each other. If you do some quick research on your own, what you will find is that unemployment is still going up and most of the 3.5% of the reported 3rd quarter growth was growth of government, and oh yeah by the way we have increased our money supply by 120% in the past year; which leads to hyperinflation. “Hyperinflations are caused by extremely rapid growth in the supply of “paper” money. They occur when the monetary and fiscal authorities of a nation regularly issue large quantities of money to pay for a large stream of government expenditures. In effect, inflation is a form of taxation in which the government gains at the expense of those who hold money while its value is declining. Hyperinflations are very large taxation schemes.” (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Hyperinflation.html). If you look at history you will find that this formula has proven disastrous. In the mean time, our national deficit is skyrocketing, and politicians are proposing a scheme to add a trillion dollars to that deficit, because it’s just too difficult to ask people to be responsible to pay for their own healthcare or generally take responsibility for themselves.
I have often said that your life is not about the circumstances that you find yourself in, but rather the way you choose to face those circumstances. I think as a country we are failing to face our circumstances with wisdom and dignity. Instead of hunkering down and relying on each other as individual neighbors, we have chosen to ask the government to save us from discomfort. The funny thing is that there are social democracies all over Europe that have done the same thing. All of their economies are in trouble as well. Many have tax rates of 40-50 percent and government run healthcare plans that are so difficult to maintain they have to be heavily rationed. The main difference is that their governments are so big and powerful, that the individual is powerless to effect change. We won’t be saved from the discomfort. We will only prolong it.
If we throw away liberty in the pursuit of free stuff, or to relieve ourselves of our responsibility, what does that say about us? When the government can no longer sustain itself, you are taxed to the hilt and are powerless to change it because you gave liberty away...what will you have to show for it? Liberty, as it turns out, is not easy. It takes self responsibility, determination and hard work. But I would rather work at keeping liberty than work at getting it back.
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." – Thomas Jefferson 1791
I have often said that your life is not about the circumstances that you find yourself in, but rather the way you choose to face those circumstances. I think as a country we are failing to face our circumstances with wisdom and dignity. Instead of hunkering down and relying on each other as individual neighbors, we have chosen to ask the government to save us from discomfort. The funny thing is that there are social democracies all over Europe that have done the same thing. All of their economies are in trouble as well. Many have tax rates of 40-50 percent and government run healthcare plans that are so difficult to maintain they have to be heavily rationed. The main difference is that their governments are so big and powerful, that the individual is powerless to effect change. We won’t be saved from the discomfort. We will only prolong it.
If we throw away liberty in the pursuit of free stuff, or to relieve ourselves of our responsibility, what does that say about us? When the government can no longer sustain itself, you are taxed to the hilt and are powerless to change it because you gave liberty away...what will you have to show for it? Liberty, as it turns out, is not easy. It takes self responsibility, determination and hard work. But I would rather work at keeping liberty than work at getting it back.
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." – Thomas Jefferson 1791
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