Sunday, February 03, 2013

Obama to Crackdown on Irresponsible Behavior

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. -- C. S. Lewis

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The Founding Fathers had this thing a about individual freedom, individual responsibility, and the pursuit of happiness.  Your life is yours to live, they believed, and when a person is self-reliant, follows personal incentives like profit, the opportunity of being a property owner or entrepreneur, and is able to keep more of what they earn, it is good for the community.  Sure, many of us can act in an irresponsible manner, and folks like James Madison recognized that.  If anything, we are definitely not angels.

The Old World, and America's experience with the British Empire, taught the Founding Fathers that central governments give way to tyranny. Tyranny is born from central governments.  However, without a central government, a society is unable to protect and preserve itself.  The founders faced a difficult situation, for without a central government tasked with handling external issues such as the common defense, trade with other nations, and putting in good order the elements of commerce, immigration, and currency, the very existence of a free society is at risk.

A free market where government regulations are at a minimum, and capitalism could flourish, emerged as the dominant financial system in the colonies, and ultimately, in the United States of America.  Opportunity for all, a.k.a. the pursuit of happiness, resulted, because a ruling elite, such as existed in the Old World, was not micro-managing the lives of the people, or the businesses working hard to make a profit, and ultimately create a better life for themselves.  Without government interference, mercantilism was lost in the crowd, and individual success became a norm.

When working to improve one's lot in life, often an entrepreneur must take risks.  Financial risks can have devastating results, or be very lucrative.  People who excel at market strategies do well, make a lot of money, and the companies become giant corporations that ultimately grows the economy, moves products, and provides jobs.  Freedom enables this.  A limited federal government, who has no constitutional authority to impose itself on the process as it has been, enables economic growth and job growth.  In other words, the best way for the government to turn things around is to get the heck out of the way.

The statists in Washington disagree.  They believe in punitive regulation, creating a Marxist-style system of class warfare between the wealthy and not-so-wealthy, and calling profit "greed."  The media helps out, pushing this anti-growth agenda, such as in the picture above where they actually suggest that the salaries of successful executives should be seized by the government.

Sometimes, when one takes a business risk, the consequences are bad, and sometimes they are good. That is the nature of business.  However, Barack Obama and his democrat cronies are of the opinion that only government can make good decisions, and so the political machine must control all production, and force businesses from acting in a manner that could result in harm to the system. Therefore, any risk taken by banks, businesses, or corporations are "irresponsible behavior," and must be curbed by the government.  The all-powerful Obama, in fact, is vowing to crackdown on what he calls irresponsible behavior.

When government begins to act in this kind of tyrannical manner, it doesn't stop with just those the raging mob thinks deserves it.  Government tyranny touches all parts of society, from the successful business owner to the laborer.  Mayor Bloomberg has proven this to be true with his nanny-state actions in New York.  He, in his ruling elitist wisdom, believes it is government's responsibility to limit your soda intake, tell you what you can or can't eat (such as with trans-fats), and dictate to mothers that they must breast feed.

Resistance is futile.

Any person who has reached the pinnacle of success will tell you that innovation, and success itself, is born from failure.  Edison claimed he didn't fail on how to make a light bulb prior to his success. He just found many ways it didn't work.  Government control, such as cracking down on what they think is irresponsible behavior, is tyrannical, takes away freedoms, and ultimately will create the opportunity for our economic system to collapse.

Government does not create innovation, economic growth, or jobs.  That is something that comes from the private sector - a bastion of the free market of which Barack Obama, just like Karl Marx, Josef Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin, hates with a passion.

They think your freedom harms the collective, and in their wisdom they must force you to do what they believe is best for the "common good."  Either do what they dictate, or be restrained by the body politic.

That, my friends, is hardly the American System created by the Constitution that has stood the test of time, and has resulted in the success of this very young, sometimes risk-taking, nation.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Obama Pledges to Crackdown on Irresponsible Behavior - Weekly Standard

Do Penalties for Smokers and the Obese Make Sense? - Fox News

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