The Real Price of Freedom

For the past six months, I've been reading a lot more books about the issues of the day. A few of the more recent books include

The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek

To Save America by New Gingrich

What's So Great About America? by Dinesh D'Souza

Glenn Beck's Common Sense by Glenn Beck

Drill Here; Drill Now; Pay Less by Newt Gingrich

Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity by John Stossel

Partly, I've been reading these books for insight into the motivations of the far left, or the "Secular-Socialist Machine" as Gingrich calls it. In spite of abundant evidence that more government simply creates more problems and that Socialism is a flawed approach to governing, the far left has been bull-dozing the legislative landscape with highly Socialist laws that a substantial majority of Americans have clearly said they don't want. In spite of numerous books and articles that demonstrate serious flaws in these proposed laws, the far left is aggressively moving to impose a much bigger government on us.

They claim to be non-partisan, but can't get the support of a single Republican for many of their bills and ram those bills through Congress with deceit and bribery. They blatantly lie to us about cutting taxes, reducing government, dealing with illegal immigration, protecting the environment and much more. They use offshore tax havens and our multi-national corporations as scapegoats for not being able to collect more taxes when the taxes that are collected are being grossly wasted. They talk about energy independence but refuse to utilize any of the effective sources of energy that we already have.

I have finally come to understand that the far left is not motivated by seeking to solve problems.

Their motivation is simply to secure raw and unlimited power.

While it defies common sense, they are intentionally destroying the economy of the U.S. so that all but a tiny fraction of the populace will come meekly like cows and pigs to the government feeding trough. Why? Because that's the only way they can sustain their positions of power. They prefer to be masters of a devastated economy than to be free members of a society of merit and ability. Many of them can't or won't compete in a free market and seek to establish an alternative universe of idealistic equality for all -- except for the leaders of course.

They are supported by a diverse collection of special interest groups, each of which participates in the plunder of the income and property of the people in order to secure political support for narrow and self-serving purposes. The unions seek government help to pass laws that give the unions more power over the workers and employers. The environmentalists want the government to pass laws that devastate the principle of private property and deceive us with false science about global warming. Some farmers support the far left in order to continue their generous farm subsidies. Nonprofit organizations support the far left because of generous grants and tax laws that virtually mandate that wealthy persons leave a large part of their estates to charity. They are supported by academia in exchange for subsidies, influence and even power. And the national media supports them because they seem to believe the Utopian fairy tales about the great benefits of economic equality. Also, the media owners generate a huge amount of ad revenue every two years and many of the largest media are owned by persons of far left persuasion. Even large businesses support the agenda of the far left in exchange for laws that make it extremely difficult for smaller businesses to compete.

And a lot of the people who advocate policies of the far left are highly idealistic and have little interest in such mundane subjects as economics or taxes. In fact, many of them openly disdain the merits of discussing such topics. They simply refuse to discuss why Keynes' theories are false, why lower tax rates produce more tax revenue, how the government causes inflation with the help of the Federal Reserve or why a free market provides the greatest benefit to the poor.

Then there are the younger voters who have limited experience with life and have been supported for 25 or more years by their parents. Despite protests of wanting to be independent, they have a basic belief in the nanny state. Finally, there are the people who truly believe that they know what is best for everyone else and are entirely willing to support laws that impose their views on everyone else.

That's just a sampling of the varied special interest groups that provide financial and political support for the far left.

The prospect of resisting the supporters of the far left seems nearly impossible.

Advocates of freedom are vilified by the far left and get little sympathy from family or even from some friends.

Those who like the status quo are generally those who are getting a substantial benefit of some kind from government. And there are a lot of us who would encounter financial difficulty if there was a dramatic change toward less government. Employees of the federal and state government and their families worry about how they will be able to live if their government agency is closed or drastically reduced in size. Retirees worry about how they will be able to afford health care and whether they can get by without Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Union members worry about losing the power of the government to give them leverage over large employers. Contractors who do work for the government worry about their livelihood. Farmers worry about their subsidies. Academia worries about their government research grants. And the large number of people who get some kind of subsidy like low income housing, food stamps, school lunches and a host of other benefits worry about whether they can really afford a smaller government.

So it seems that the real price of freedom is the willingness to give up our respective government subsidies based on a faith that freedom is worth it and that greater prosperity will come from a much smaller government.

Either we have faith in the false promise of equality for all or we have faith in the benefits of a free market, private property, honest money and limited government.

What sort of government funded financial aid do you receive or expect to receive?

Can you live without that support? Is freedom worth it for you?

Before you say "No", read Newt Gingrich's book, "To Save America" and get a copy of The Road to Serfdom by F.S. Hayek.

If we are not willing to be independent of the government, we will soon be little more than the tame pigs and the cows that are used as meat for the owners.

Vern

http://www.offshorepress.com/liberty/