There is one thing government could do that I will support. One thing I believe it needs to spend more time doing. It’s the one thing government can do best, the one thing government can do that will actually help, and the only thing that can justify taxation.
Tag: taxation
Laws Themselves a Senseless Crime
Droughts are a serious problem. They cause wildfires, dirt storms, crop failure, and they deplete the aquifer. Droughts are harmful and dangerous. Someone should do something! Why aren’t droughts illegal already?
Statists are Welcome to Listen and Learn, or Not
They don’t want to hear that no matter how many people agree, those people can’t make a right out of thin air, and they can’t transfer an imaginary right created in this way to someone else to put it into action on it on their behalf in the name of “authority”.
Government Explained
Is it OK for me to go into your house and take your stuff? What if I first write on a piece of paper that it’s OK for me to go into your house and take your stuff? Does that make it OK? What if I get a lot of people to agree with me that the permission slip I wrote for myself makes it OK?
Government Not Designed to Help
No government has ever protected life, liberty, or property when it meant scaling back its own power. Expecting government to do so is like hopping in your family SUV expecting to drive it to Alpha Centauri. That’s not what it was designed to do, and not in the realm of possibility, no matter how much you wish it were.
Life Requires Labor, Either Your Own or Someone Else’s
The real distinction is between those who sustain their own existence and those whose existence is sustained by the labor of others. The latter category can be subdivided into those whose lives are sustained through the voluntary labor of others (i.e. charity) and those whose lives are sustained through coercion, force, violence, and theft.
Government: The God of Statism
AronRa, a popular outspoken atelatheist, whose work (in general) I love, defines a religion as “a faith-based belief system, including the notion that some element of self, be it memories or consciousness …a soul, perhaps… continues beyond the death of the physical body; transcends and survives that…”. I see no mention of belief in a god being a requirement for something to be a religion. But, do they really not believe in a god?
Where You Are and Where You Are Headed
My conversion story isn’t that dramatic. Sure, I used to accept a lot of statist nonsense. I thought some “laws” were good and necessary. I thought some cops were probably decent people. I figured licenses and permits had their place, and I wondered whether guns should be more tightly controlled. All that sort of thing. But I was never really a fan of the State. I always felt it was overrated, and not quite as represented.
An Atelatheist Exposes the Religion of Statism
Yes, belief in the State results in buildings being built, people molested due to “laws”, and other physical effects in the real world, but those are no more proof of the existence of the State than churches, inquisitions, martyrs, or charities are proof of the existence of God. People who believe something do things based on that belief. Such is the nature of belief. Beliefs have effects on the behavior of people who believe, even when the belief is in something imaginary.
Freedom is Winning in the Encryption Arms Race
If you thought the perpetual whining from law enforcement about encryption was about fighting terrorism, think again. It’s mostly about the money. Like other mobsters, politicians and their accomplices hate the idea of their rackets coming to an end.