Introduction to Human Dignity and our Economy...

We are witnessing the slow death caused by subtle socialism

The Soviet Block used overt socialism to kill itself in 70 years. The US is using subtle socialism to accomplish the same thing over a longer timeframe.

Why does it take longer to kill a nation with subtle socialism than with overt socialism? Because the free market breathes new life into the infected nation, giving it strength to endure and last longer than otherwise.

I say this not based on economics. I say it based on the principles of human dignity. In the early 1900's the US began undermining human dignity by turning to the government to unnecessarily regulate the free market, undermining subsidiarity by hindering the ability of people to enter freely into contracts with each other.

It's now so common place we don't realize the government doesn't belong as a third wheel controlling how any free interaction takes place. The government sitting on each person's hand looks right to us. It's not.

If the government is involved, increased regulation is needed to keep the government in check while it regulates the interaction (otherwise, the government is tempted to become a player in a sandbox that's it's regulating). When abuse happens, we daftly trust the government to fix it by adding more regulation (brilliant deduction! I'm off to wipe the sardonic off my face) and instead of doing the right thing to uphold human dignity (remove regulation and government involvement), we add more of both, compounding the problem.

Now, we've given up on even the facade of subtle socialism and our government is deciding which companies get bailout finding (gee, no chance for further waste there!).

Unless we take drastic action to remove the insidious cancer of socialism from all aspects of government -- cutting it's role back to only the most basic and necessary functions to protect our population and define and uphold the rules of the free market -- our great nation will crumble under the weight of our own bungling weight, and human dignity will be squashed just as equally as it was under overt socialist USSR.

Let's try everything except nothing!

Everything Seems Reasonable without Principles to Stand On
Treasury Secretary Paulson today changed strategies in the financial bailout. I don't pretend to understand what he's now proposing (and I'm far from convinced he knows either), but what I do know is that we have strayed far and wide from what the proper role of government is: upholding and ensuring the rights of the people to life, liberty, and property (see The Law, by Frederic Bastiat).

Och! How very much our government has become the legal plunderer rather than the protector.

The government has two right and proper roles in the free market (which I call the sandbox):

1. Define the sandbox and its rules
   
2. Uphold and enforce the rules
   

Bully in the Sandbox

Of course it is hardly content with only those two roles, and so it steps into the sandbox to play, often in the name of "fairness". Except that as make, enforcer, and now player in the sandbox, there is nothing to stop the government. And we just elected leaders who want to play even more in the sandbox.

Of course, the problem with a bully in the sandbox is no other kids are quite sure they want to play because anything they play might get taken away. So of course we still have a credit crisis. You hold on to your toys when the bully's around, especially when he says "Go ahead, play!"

Mini-Revolution

Time for a mini-revolution to return government back to being by the people and for the people.

Our one option: vote them out! They clearly won't get out of the way. We are the only ones who can stop the government. Not entirely. It has a right and proper role. It's just that right now it's doing everything except its right and proper role, and in so doing harming those it is supposed to protect.