A sequel to yesterday’s post, framed around comments by Abbot of Arbroath, who begins thusly:<\/p>\n
I can grasp the freedom = equality issue is a challenge. There rest is debatable.\u2028\u2028<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Then let\u2019s debate it! Although I\u2019m not sure what the \u201crest\u201d is.<\/p>\n“Let\u2019s begin with the basic assumption at the root of our nation\u2019s founding”\u2028\u2028This is inaccurate. Freedom was for white males and don\u2019t you dare forget that when you propagate a mythical history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Agreed that freedom for white males was indeed the practice, but it was never the ideal. Jefferson recognized the disconnect between a slave-owning state and the concept that all men are created equal and tried to put language in the Declaration decrying slavery. Over 600,000 Americans died in a civil war for this idea. I think it\u2019s mythical history to suggest that the founders cynically ignored the universal implications of the Jeffersonian language.<\/p>\n
“All over the world, people have made the exchange, and the standard of living for everyone has gone down as a result.”\u2028\u2028This is contestable. Check out the GDP per capita listings even from the CIA. Unsurprisingly, the top 10 – the US is ranked 10th. Small countries with banking backgrounds hiding money are the competition. The others are small European countries with redistributive systems. \u2028\u2028In fact looking at the listing – there is little difference, about 3000 USD, between most European countries which embrace mixed economy and higher tax burden (a bit like the current mixed economy which is presented as a bail-out in the US) but provide health care, schooling, university, pensions and employment protection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m not convinced that GDP is the best way to measure freedom. These stats show Qatar with a per capita GDP almost twice that of the US, yet that\u2019s because the oil-soaked Emir of Qatar has a personal GDP of approximately a gazillion dollars, which tends to skew the numbers a little bit. Qatar is home to the equivalent of modern-day slavery, even though its GDP can\u2019t be beat.<\/p>\n
In addition, 3000 USD is a 6.7% difference, which is not insignificant. Imagine a country with a 6.7% growth rate, and you\u2019ll see what I mean.<\/p>\n
It all depends on what you see the function of the state to be – to make money or to ensure equitable society with high levels of social cohesion and low levels of violence. \u2028<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I hope those aren’t the only two options available, as I don\u2019t like either of them. The state shouldn\u2019t exist \u201cto make money;\u201d taxation should only be a necessary evil to maintain the state\u2019s basic and enumerated functions. That\u2019s one of the reasons, incidentally, why Obama lost my vote early on. When it was pointed out to him that the state would make MORE money with a lower capital gains tax rate, he said he would still raise the tax because it was \u201ca question of fairness.\u201d So even if it means less money, he\u2019s going to screw over the rich.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m all about \u201chigh levels of social cohesion\u201d and \u201clow levels of violence.\u201d I get hives when you start talking about \u201cequitable society.\u201d Do you mean equal opportunity or equal outcomes? Because they are very, very different things.<\/p>\n
You cannot afford to neglect the link between the creation of government as an entity to ensure autonomy and low levels of violence in societies that do redistribute. Murder rates for European countries average 1k per annum for around 60m compared to the US with 17k murders for 300m. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Correlation isn\u2019t causation. I don\u2019t see how you make the case that the reason people in the US shoot each other more often because the welfare state isn\u2019t as bulky. I think this is a separate issue entirely.<\/p>\n
There is an obvious concern. Also the UN reporting rates is of interest as the US only reports assaults crime which involve a firearm or end in serious bodily injury; other countries classify emotional or abusive assaults ( shouting in the street) as an assault. This is an \u201capple and pears\u201d comparison but the intent behind the logic of report compilation is telling. \u2028<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Maybe it is, but I don\u2019t know what it tells.<\/p>\n
Is economic freedom the be all and end all of all of government?\u2028\u2028<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Is that supposed to be a rhetorical question?<\/p>\n
I suppose there\u2019s more to it, but I don\u2019t think you can separate economic freedom from, say, freedom. When the Declaration was first written, the three unalienable rights Jefferson cited were life, liberty, and property. The idea that economic freedom is somehow tangential to the overall freedom equation ignores the founding principles of the nation.<\/p>\n
As for the be all and end all of government, it would be nice if government had an \u201cend all.\u201d It seems to define its role according to its whims, and the result is an expansion of government\u2019s role and a diminishment of personal freedom. As Ronald Reagan once said, \u201cno government has ever voluntarily reduced itself in size.\u201d<\/p>\n
Government exists not to grant freedom but rather to protect it. And, as Jefferson wrote, \u201cwhenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” That’s nice to know in theory, but I don’t see an economically intrusive government going away any time soon.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asequel to yesterday's post, framed around comments by Abbot of Arbroath, who begins thusly: \u00a0I can grasp the freedom = equality issue is a challenge. There rest is debatable.\u2028\u2028<\/blockquote> Then let\u2019s debate it! Although I\u2019m not sure what the \u201crest\u201d is.\"Let\u2019s begin with the basic assumption at the root of our nation\u2019s founding\"\u2028\u2028This <\/blockquote> ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}