«-- Odds 'n Sods: | Main | Letter Re: Advice on a Budget Water Filter --»
Letter Re: A Clash of World Views--Socialism Versus the Libertarian Ethic
Mr Rawles,
I have been a survival blog reader for over a year now, and my hat is off to
you, sir. "Patriots:
Surviving the Coming Collapse", and the information presented on these pages have been
extremely positive influences in my planning and preparations. While I have
been, to this point, content to absorb the wealth of knowledge presented here,
I was compelled by a recent post to submit this correspondence.
In [the
letter posted on Sunday] titled "Clash of World Views”, David
D.
makes
the
claim
that “We’ve had our grand experiment in deregulation and the magic
of the market, and it’s now perfectly clear where it got us.” I would
respectfully submit that a deregulated free market and personal responsibility
are quite a bit removed from the causal factors in the current state of affairs,
which is more correctly attributable to injections of “equality” and “safety
nets” into what would be a self-regulating system, otherwise. Where equality
is the goal, excellence is a casualty. When the incentive for achievement is
removed, mediocrity and sloth are inevitable results. If excellence and success
are not rewarded, but instead, the products of those efforts are forcibly redistributed
by government intervention, we are enabling the parasitic existence of an exponentially
growing number of non-contributing dependents. Gone, too, is the incentive to
get off the dole. When receiving assistance from the charity of a neighbor, a
reasonable man soon endeavors to better their condition in order to remove the
requirement of outside help, and indeed, to pay back the favor in whatever way
possible. When the system provides sustenance through the form of an anonymous
check every month, the incentive to better one’s condition has been removed
by the government “safety net”. Measures meant to protect equality
and provide safety invariable hamstring the self-regulating nature of a free
market, and we have, in this country, injected enough equality and safety into
what started as a free market to strangle and pervert the “grand experiment” into
a near unrecognizable form.
I am greatly disheartened at where we now find ourselves, so far from the intent
of our founding fathers, when all men were created equal, but where they went
from there was based on their own exertions, and not augmented by the social “entitlements” they
were eligible for. Wise men began this endeavor in federal government with the
intent to keep the entity small and out of most state affairs. With a staggering
portion of the national budget now going towards entitlements, in effect, redistributing
wealth, and with volumes of regulatory and mala prohibita nonsense,
we are a far cry from a free market. We have long been sliding down the slippery
slope into a socialist democracy where those supported by the efforts of better
men have the electoral power to increase their claim to the fruits of the labor
of others through votes, sympathy, and by invoking a twisted sense of social
guilt. We have been legislated into chains, and each year, as our liberties are
taken under the guise of stewardship, they grow heavier.
We need more people willing to take ownership of their own destiny, and fewer
victims waiting for rescue. We need less regulation, more liberty, and the attendant
greater personal responsibilities. Our founders meant to provide these conditions
in perpetuity through the Constitution for these United States, and I truly believe
that if we can undertake stripping back the perversions we have applied to their
intent, this document from our past is the key to a successful future. I, for
one, would welcome a world where “equality” refers to the interaction
among men according to the Golden Rule, and the “safety nets” are
provided by family, community, church, and charity, instead of through wasteful
and overbearing government redistribution. Thanks for all you do, - D.
