FOUNDATION
Definitions
- "restraint" is use of force to interfere with an individual's actions,
- "freedom" is lack of restraint,
- "equality" is that all individuals have the same restraint,
- "liberty" is the maximum freedom consistent with equality.
- "Special benefit" is an advantage given, by government, to someone/group and not given to others.
Core Assumptions
Structure
- There is nothing inherent in the universe that prefers one individual or group over another.
- Humans usually act in their self interest.
- Humans are social beings and form groups.
- Groups require rules.
- Rules govern relationships between individual's by restraint.
- Rules require enforcement.
- Thus groups (clubs, tribes, states, nations, etc.) develop ruling powers (governments).
- It is natural for those governing to think that more power will allow them to govern more effectively.
- Increasing government power, increases restraint.
I believe that history supports these assumptions.
Individuals
- The moments of an individual's life belong to that individual.
- Using and/or restraining the moments of an individual's life, without the individual's consent, is slavery.
- Freedom is better than slavery.
- Government, with liberty, will produce the greatest number of positive individual outcomes over time.
The less liberty the fewer positive individual outcomes.
- I find or choose the individual as more important than the group because:
- The individual can survive, however incompletely, without the group.
- The group does not exist without individuals.
- Always, it is individual acts that preserve the group. Even though individuals act in concert, it is the individual acting that is necessary.
This infers that the individual good precedes the common good.
Description
The function of government is to impose restraint.
Restraint can be imposed with or with out consent.
The amount and source of restraint defines government.
Restraint can vary through all forms of government. It is quite possible for a dictatorship to be benevolent and a democracy to be tyrannical or the opposite.
The function of consent is to control government's use of restraint. Without consent, individuals have no control over their freedom and government can arbitrarily manipulate restraint and thus freedom.
Problems
Four primary problems with liberty.
- Government's tendency to accumulate power.
- Government ability to perform actions not benefiting all.
- Short term versus long term policies.
- Good government fosters better lives and then comes lack of attention to liberty — success brings complacency.
Tendency to accumulate power
It is natural for those in power to think that, with more power, they can do a better job. Thus there is a continual pressure to acquire power.
Actions not benefiting all — special benefits given to one/some and not to another/others
The existence of special benefits:
- signals that government does not maintain equality,
- lays the foundation for a marketplace between government and constituents.
Governments, that perform actions that do not benefit all, create a framework for distributing favor and exacting tribute.
- Citizens have incentive to acquire special benefits.
- Those in government have incentive to grant special benefits for which they can receive:
- money,
- loyalty,
- dependent supporters,
- enhanced power.
- Those giving and receiving special benefits have incentive to expand this function.
Once this ability exists, then equality and opportunity are no longer individual rights but become variables government manipulates. Government will continually be monitoring and redressing situations by
giving or taking.
This power will be abused.
Short term versus long term policies
Temporary rulers, as in democracies, have incentive for present oriented policies that benefit them at the future expense of citizens.
Complacency
People attend more to irritants and that which runs smoothly is soon unnoticed. Good government loses the attention of citizens and then it's natural tendency to gather power is not checked.
Further, citizens often think that good government is evidence for more government.
Government growing and gathering power means individuals lose power and thus control of their liberty.
INCREASING GOVERNMENT POWER
Governmental power is always maintained by force.
Government power and individual power are inversely related.
The purpose of government is enforcing rules.
A government obtains power in two ways:
- taking it,
- power from the top down,
- power resides in government (any individual power depends upon government whim),
- authoritarian power is not limited;
- receiving it from the public,
- power from the bottom up,
- government has only the power ceded,
- authoritarian power is limited.
If power is not taken by force, then the individuals must relinquish power.
Government will employ strategies for convincing individuals to do so.
Government Strategies
Fostering group recognition and rights
Consequences - groups will:
- strongly focus on "their rights" and thus be less threatening to
governmental power than a cohesive electorate focused on individual
liberty;
- focus on seeking advantage/redress from government instead of using
group power for self help - thus become obligated to government;
- produce concentrated effort for obtaining special benefits at the expense of the unfocused general electorate;
- have greater incentive than individuals since the group will acquire much more than each individual, in the rest of the population, will lose;
- compete as group against group which divides and weakens the demos
where individual competition does not.
This is a rich field as almost any trait can be picked to define such a
group. Further, a group may be singled out not only for beneficial but for adverse treatment. The group can be maligned as a means of arousing and controlling the rest
of the citizens.
Essentially this is use of special benefits.
Equal outcomes versus equal opportunity
The arguments is that A has more than B, therefore A must have had an advantage over B. This is often true. Person A may have been born into a more advantaged conditions than B. Always there will be some people smarter, more talented, more coordinated, wealthier, having better parents, luckier, and/or et cetera. It is impossible to eliminate this fact. Even if people are kept in a zoo and treated exactly the same, some will find advantage within this environment. And the zoo keepers will, or course, be immune to zoo regulations.
Maintaining equal outcomes can produce severe consequences. You must be willing to restrict opportunity for the talented. If the talented are given equal opportunity, outcomes will be unequal. The result of restriction is that the group will lose the full benefit of talented people's potential and those restricted will become dissatisfied with the group. The group potential and cohesiveness is diminished.
Those disadvantaged, as defined by government, can become another
group as noted above.
To allow government to equalize outcomes is to allow dispensation of special benefits.
Short term polices
Concrete benefits received produce positive recognition for rulers.
A special benefit received now tends to be noticed more and outweigh acts enhancing, such as, long term market stability or liberty.
Temporary rulers, such as elected officials, have an uncertain time in office and thus have incentive for short term, noticeable policies at the long term and more hidden expense of the people.
The marketplace
Government claims that the marketplace does not produce an even distribution of benefits.
Government must correct the market and produce a more reliable and even distribution of benefits by introducing special benefits.
Complexity
Government claims that issues are so complex that only professionals in the field can understand and be competent to make decisions.
Successful use of the this idea produces:
- increased government power,
- incentive for government to increase complexity,
- lack of attention by citizens.
U. S. CONSTITUTION
Purpose
The Constitution is a statement of consent to certain governmental powers and procedures.
It's purpose is not to enhance life, but rather to lay down rules that prevent misuse of individual lives by others. Enhancement can then take care of itself.
The Founders hoped to create a system that would:
- free human potential by limiting the ruling power to only necessary and consented functions,
- hold these limits over time.
They attempted to structure a government that was immune to the abuses of power presented to them by history and personal experience. They had learned that too often, in the course of human desire, power becomes the goal and that power "tends to corrupt."
The theory, in our republic, is that:
- the three branches of government will jealously guard their power and thus inhibit each other
- the citizen's vote will remove those who abuse their positions.
The Founders believed that, in spite of their distribution of power, the new government would stand only as long as the people valued freedom first. They believed that government would attempt to gather power and only the vigilance of the people would maintain liberty. Many doubted that this vigilance would be maintained over time.
Problems
The balance of powers had successes. But over time each branch recognized that competition over power was less rewarding than a mutual gathering of power.
Our founding documents have three phrasings that underlie many increases of federal power.
- Declaration of Independence
"WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness . . ."
- Constitution
- Article I, Section 8, Clause 1
" The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; "
- Preamble to the Constitution
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
- Constitution
- Article I, Section 8, Clause 3
"[The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;"
Neither the Constitution nor referral to original intent of the Founding Fathers has produced solid federal limitations in these areas. Further, they are moot given:
- the current operations of the U. S. Government,
- that constitutionality depends on the existing political dominance within the Supreme Court.
All men are created equal
Government adjusts the concept of equality to justify manipulating liberty.
For example, if the concept becomes equality of outcome, then government is allowed to instigate unequal restraint to adjust outcomes, which never will be exactly equal. Unequal restraint is special benefit and brings:
- unequal freedom,
- unequal opportunity,
- power to government.
General Welfare
The Welfare Clause reading has been that almost any act helping any entity, within the nation, promotes "general welfare" and is thus constitutional. Constitutional limitations on government action evaporate. Government moves into enabling functions and gains ability to dispense special benefit.
Another reading could be that since the clause says, "promote the general welfare," only acts that benefit all equally are constitutional. Acts benefiting one person or group and not (or more than) another are not general and thus not constitutional.
Commerce Clause
The expansion of what is defined as "commerce among the several States," has moved power from state to central government.
- Federalism, a key division of power, is diminishing as a protection for liberty.
- The source of restraint moves farther from the individual's control.
- If policy is administered at state level, people can also control their political environment by choosing to move to another state.
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