Oppression

Government stifling or suffocating liberty and opportunity. There are stories about Government stifling or suffocating liberty and opportunity: almost always for the greater good. But if you're getting squashed or stymied by a jack-boot, it may not matter to you what the intentions were. ℹ️ Info           ~ Aristotle Sabouni

Government, Oppression • [8 items]

American Government
Why our Government is different than others? Of course it's debatable whether we are that different. But there is one fundamental difference: Americans once understood liberty and tolerance. Even if both were selectively applied, at least we tried to understand them. Most government and people's don't even get that far.

California Coastal Commission
The CCC is what happens when community organizers run development planning: they claim, "To protect, conserve, restore, and enhance the environment of the California coastline" by obstructing development and improvement of one of our countries great resources, saving it from humanity and the usefulness it might have to individuals or our country.

California Notary
My wife spent like $500 (and a few days in class) getting her notary. Well, sorta. She spent that to get trained, passed the test, and go everything she needed. She was blocked by the County Recorder, for no good reason but to exert power, because that's what Bureaucrats do in California. No accountability.

California Water Crisis

California's water drought has nothing to do with rain, and everything to do with the failure of government. Cal captures 1% of the water, then since 2007 flushes 46% of that into the ocean for "environmental purposes" (a baitfish the delta smelt), 43% goes to farming, 11% goes to urban areas. When there's a problem they raise the cost of water and punish the 11%: because that's where the money is.

Harrison Bergeron and the Law of Jante
The idea that the individual should be valued based only on their contribution to the collective, is one of the most detestable philosophies ever invented. From Harrison Bergeron, Sirens of Titan, Law of Jante, tall poppy, Procrustean bed or Dog in the Manger, the allegories and lessons throughout time are not positive. But still the philosophy exists.

Net Neutrality
We had no net neutrality for the first 60+ years of networking, the Obama admin invented a few "regulations" in 2015 to protect us from liberty (imaginary demons under the bed and non-problems that weren't happening), and the left/media acts like repeal of that (liberty) will be going back to the slavery of 2015.

Suffocating Liberty - the cost of red tape
Each new tax, law or regulation, comes with costs (compliance, non-compliance, enforcement and punishment). We have 174,545 pages of regulations, 73,954 pages in our tax code, 23,000 page in our federal legal code, double that for statutes, 300,000 criminal punishments from administrative agencies. Then add in the state+local laws, regulations and taxes on top.

Tragedy of the commons
We often get dire warnings about Malthusian Catastrophes, Ehrlich's population bombs and how individuals can't be trusted to manage shared interests. We need government to protect us from ourselves. History shows the opposite: individuals form small governments for common interests better than big governments, unless big government stops them.

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Government This is looking at Government from an American, Libertarian, and idealistic PoV, that many foreigners will not understand.

Tags: Government/tab