The Crux of the matter

We have arrived at the summation of our differences. A recent post showed a video of progress over the past two hundred years. I asked the question and strongly believe if the cause of our progress is from expanding freedom (a previously non existent right). Some blogger's responded that no, societal improvements were the cause, in fact let's look at Baxter's reply.


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The freedom to employ children in manufacturing? The freedom to keep kids out of school to work in the fields? The freedom to pay workers low wages and require a six day, 72 hour work week? Freedom to die in the streets for lack of basic health care?


We had that "freedom" 100 years ago. It is the progressive movement, the New Deal, and similar policies that created our huge middle class. Genuine, sustainable prosperity is not delivered by Republicans. You need only look at the last century for verification.
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The crux! A Conservative believes that free people will achieve and act nobly. A Progressive belief is that absent government intervention we will enslave and ignore our fellow citizens. A Conservative believes in his fellow man and understands that left to his own and owning his self and his property,  prosperity will ultimately ensue. A Progressive abdicates that responsibility believing that for the greater good, individual achievement and private property must be subordinated.
I'm glad I'm a Conservative. So are the citizens of previous communist countries. Their central planning did not exactly "work out".


By WALTER WILLIAMS


Immorality in government lies at the heart of our nation's problems. Deficits, debt and runaway government are merely symptoms. What's moral and immoral conduct can be complicated, but needlessly so. I keep things simple and you tell me where I go wrong.

My initial assumption is that we each own ourselves. I am my private property and you are yours. If we accept the notion that people own themselves, then it's easy to discover what forms of conduct are moral and immoral.

Immoral acts are those that violate self-ownership. Murder, rape, assault and slavery are immoral because those acts violate private property. So is theft, broadly defined as taking the rightful property of one person and giving it to another.

Who Owns You?

If it is your belief that people do not belong to themselves, they are in whole or in part the property of the U.S. Congress, or people are owned by God, who has placed the U.S. Congress in charge of managing them, then all of my observations are simply nonsense.

Let's look at some congressional actions in light of self-ownership. Do farmers and businessmen have a right to congressional handouts? Does a person have a right to congressional handouts for housing, food and medical care?

First, let's ask: Where does Congress get handout money? One thing for sure, it's not from the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus, nor is it congressmen reaching into their own pockets.

The only way for Congress to give one American one dollar is to first, through the tax code, take that dollar from some other American. It must forcibly use one American to serve another American.