There OughtTo Be A Law
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
Ludwig von Mises
How true this is. Every time someone says “There ought to be a law” I cringe. Most who say this are well intentioned but they do not know what they are asking for. They are asking us to grant the government more power to kill us, to beat us to imprison us, to thwart yet another liberty and in doing so thwart the growth and evolution of human society.
They are asking for complete obedience to a state and its agents of violence and coercion no matter how trivial the matter. You may look both ways and see no traffic, cross the street in the middle of the block doing so safely. Yet if a costumed agent of the state sees this he now has authority to stop you, infringing upon your fundamental right to be left alone. If you decide to resist this ridiculous intrusion into your life you may be arrested, beat, tazed, killed, imprisoned, you may lose your livelihood, your family, your friends. Why? Because someone said “There ought to be a law”.
Some may claim Iam exaggerating or being over-hyperbolic, but am I? Who wants to test that theory out? I purposefully picked an innocuous example to explore the ultimate result of not obeying, all we have to do is look the current state of things to see how the end results of monopolizing the use of force to the state. All because someone said “There ought to be a law”.
They have created a myriad of mala prohibitum laws that are against our common law origins and contrary to freedom. They fight a war against “drugs”,which is not really a war against drugs -- it is a war on its citizens. The violence in our streets from government sanctioned thugs and from those who engage in a market that is forced underground, the theft of our property in the form of taxes to fight this war and to cage our fellow humans for ignoring prohibition, is drastically worse than the consequences of a small percentage of our population “getting high”. All because someone said “There ought to be a law”.
They created myriads of licensing schemes, to drive, to operate a business, to get married, to hold a public meeting, to engage in trade, to use your property that you bought with your hard earned dollars, to communicate, etc. I am sure many of these had good intentions yet the overall cost to society is again more harmful than the free exercise of your liberties, and has put the government in a position of authority and telling you how to live your life, and if you don't comply, we know what the end result is. All because someone said “There ought to be a law”.
They immorally tax our wages, distort our money, interfere with free markets, create laws you can be guilty of breaking no matter what, as shown in the so called anti trust laws; charge too much -- gouging, charge the same of others -- collusion, charge less -- predatory pricing. All because someone said “There ought to be a law”.
They invade our privacy; they infringe upon our right to bear arms and our right to free speech; they coerce or threaten us into incriminating ourselves.They make us pay to “quarter” these enforcers. They overstep the boundaries of protecting individual rights and arbitrating disputes and keeping us safe from invasion. There ought to be a law...........