COMMON SENSE; Revisited
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Frederic Bastiat
July 07, 2009 at 07:03 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
Frederic Bastiat, The Law (Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, 1850) p. 59.God has given to men all that is necessary for them to accomplish their destinies. He has provided a social form as well as a human form. And these social organs of persons are so constituted that they will develop themselves harmoniously in the clean air of liberty. Away, then, with quacks and organizers! Away with their rings, chains, hooks, and pincers! Away with their artificial systems! Away with the whims of governmental administrators, their socialized projects, their centralization, their tariffs, their government schools, their state religions, their free credit, their bank monopolies, their regulations, their restrictions, their equalization by taxation, and their pious moralizations! And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.
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William J. H. Boetcker
July 07, 2009 at 07:39 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
William J. H Boetcker, The Ten Cannots (1916)You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. -
Frederic Bastiat
July 07, 2009 at 07:42 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
Frederic Bastiat, The Law (Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, 1850) p. 13, 14.The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay…If such a law is not abolished immediately, it will spread: multiply and develop into a system. -
Thomas Jefferson
July 07, 2009 at 06:17 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
Karna Small Bodman, Checkmate (Macmillian, 2008) p. 279.A government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have…The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
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Friedrich August von Hayek
July 07, 2009 at 06:38 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
F.A. Hayek, A Free-Market Monetary System and The Pretense of Knowledge (Ludwig von Mises Institute, Alabama, 1974) p. 4.A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.
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Bob Wallace
July 08, 2009 at 04:03 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
Bob Wallace, Morris Fishbein - AMA Enemy Of American Health, (2002). http://www.angelhealingcenter.com/AMA.htmThe cure for these problems? Remove the state backing from the AMA and FDA, and unleash the power and creativity of the free market. Many people have been brainwashed into thinking the state protects them. The truth is the exact opposite.
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Ron Paul
July 08, 2009 at 04:06 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
Ron Paul, Dietary Supplements and Health Freedom (2005) http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul246.html.Millions of Americans take dietary supplements every day, and the numbers are growing as the Baby Boom generation ages. More and more Americans understandably are frustrated with our government-controlled health care system. They have concluded that vitamins, minerals, and other supplements might help them stay healthy and less dependent on the system. They use supplements because they can buy them freely at stores and research them freely on the internet, without government interference in the form of doctors, prescriptions, HMOs, and licenses. In other words, they use supplements because they are largely free to make their own choices, in stark contrast to the conventional medical system.
“But we live in an era of unbridled government regulation of both our personal lives and the economy, and Food and Drug administration bureaucrats burn to regulate supplements in the same manner as prescription drugs.
“The health nannies insist that many dietary supplements are untested and unproven, and therefore dangerous. But the track record for FDA-approved drugs hardly inspires confidence. In fact, far more Americans have died using approved pharmaceuticals than supplements. Not every dietary supplement performs as claimed, but neither does every FDA drug.
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Ayn Rand
July 14, 2009 at 06:34 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedQuote under:
Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (Signet, 1986) "Extremism," or The Art of Smearing.The goal of the ‘liberals’ — as it emerges from the record of the past decades — was to smuggle this country into welfare statism by means of single, concrete, specific measures, enlarging the power of the government a step at a time, never permitting these steps to be summed up into principles, never permitting their direction to be identified or the basic issue to be named. Thus statism was to come, not by vote or by violence, but by slow rot — by a long process of evasion and epistemlogical corruption, leading to a fait accompli.
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The Role of the Constitution in the Current Debate on National Health Care
July 24, 2009 at 08:22 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedPost under:It goes without saying that there is a momentum that has built up over the years that is now culminating in the pending implementation of some form of national health care. It appears we as a nation are going to succumb to an endless barrage of propaganda on how we are somehow "entitled" to some form of "free" medical care.
How does the Constitution speak to this subject? First of all, it is quite clear there is no specific enumeration of powers given to the federal government to be involved in health care. This is also true of such subjects as agriculture, energy policy, and education. For over one hundred years, the federal government abided by the Constitution and the people were protected from the dictates of the federal government in these areas.
As I have discussed in previous newsletters the founders were justifiably concerned that if power were allowed to re-accumulate in the federal government in non-enumerated areas, those with the most power would end up controlling policy. This would enable the powerful to command obedience from the people in ways that favored their particular interest group.
The FDA, for example, now functions as an arm of the pharmaceutical companies. Despite the fact that we the people are told that the FDA is there to protect our interests, evidence shows that officials ignore scientific findings about serious side effects of drugs they are asked to give their seal of approval. It is only after hundreds of thousands of people suffer extreme health problems and death that the FDA might intercede and "withdraw" their support for a particular drug.
The problem with a "national health care" system that is mandated on employers, self employed individuals, and private citizens, is that no one knows what "health care" will receive the seal of approval by the government bureaucrat. Do you believe for a minute that powerful interests will not be seeking to have their "preferred" medical treatments sanctioned for acceptance in this system, while also seeking to disallow their competitors? What if you were facing a serious medical problem and, after extensive research, wanted to employ an "alternative" solution to your problem? Would you be forced to pay into the system that the government says is legitimate, and also pay for the treatment you prefer?
We have seen a dramatic increase in the cost of medical services, AFTER the government became involved. Obviously, very few question invoices that are going to be paid by "insurance" or the "government." A true free market based on an informed and self-responsible citizenry would be vastly superior to any "government" mandated program.
These are many of the reasons why the founders (and the people) were adamant that the federal government should play no role in these most important areas of life. In future newsletters I will continue to discuss how the involvement of the federal government (against the prohibitions of the Constitution) have dramatically decreased the quality of life in America, all as predicted by the founders of our nation. I will also discuss how easily we could implement non-government ("bottom-up") solutions that would dramatically improve the lives of Americans, while saving us billions in tax dollars.
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The FDA, the Food Pyramid, and Our Health
July 24, 2009 at 09:38 pm by COMMON SENSE; RevisitedPost under:It is interesting to consider the effect of the federal government’s involvement in the area of food choice and diet. I have previously stated that the founder’s were adamant that the federal government should not be involved in legislating food choices for our nation. No enumerated powers were given to the federal government in this regard. The 9th and 10th amendments clearly restrain any involvement in these issues. Despite these “chains of the constitution” we, the people, have sat back while the federal government goes merrily on dictating laws and choices for the American people.
