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Don’t cha get the point?

By Claude Bohn

“The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but, made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law, become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish! - Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1850).

***

Some time ago, I received the following story via e-mail:

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300° C.

The Russians used a pencil.

Enjoy paying your taxes.

     Now, I have no idea whether or not the story of the $12 billion pen is factual (though, considering verified reports, of $400 hammers and $600 toilet seats, I rather suspect it is), but I found it amusing, and thought it made an interesting point; and, so, I forwarded it to several people on my e-mail list. Shortly thereafter, I received the rather disturbing response below (copied verbatim), from someone who, obviously, failed to get the point of it.

“ And now due to the ball point pen we are a Super Power, Russia has still got the pencil but no damn paper to write on, their military are trying to feed their families on Ten dollars a month ,their economy is lower than shit on the ground ,that’s why Putin has sucked in with Bush,He’s trying to get some pointers ,but He is about two years too late,if He was two years earlier Clinton could Have showed him how to handle money ,but nevertheless

Thank God for Taxes and the country we live in I have no complaints,my dad paid ,my granddad paid As far as I can remember my far fathers paid ,So now Who in Hell do I think I am to think I am better than they?

And incidently We probably wouldn't save it for hard times anyway,

Forward this on to any other gripers that has complaints

Everybody wants to complain but they still want to live here”

     Needless to say, I was a bit disturbed by this response. Even though I’ve heard basically the same type of commentary before, the blatant venom, the combination of irrationality and ignorance in this response haunted me for days after; and, merely as a catharsis for my thoughts, I would like to share a few of them here.

     First of all, “we” are NOT a super power “due to” a $12 billion ballpoint pen; and, least of all, “due to” taxes! Rather, “we” are a super power because “we” are, quite simply, the wealthiest and most prosperous nation in history! Though, how much longer “we” can remain so - with our Government confiscating such a huge (and ever growing!) portion of that wealth - much of it before its actual producers ever see it, and “redistributing” the lion’s share to such state aggrandizing and empire building nonsense, remains to be seen.

This great wealth and prosperity, is NOT “due to” taxes, nor to a $12 billion pen. Rather amazingly, that wealth and prosperity exists in SPITE of these. As Henry David Thoreau once wrote (while in jail for refusing to pay a tax, due to his principled opposition to slavery and the Mexican War):

     “Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but with the alacrity with which it got out of the way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.” [Emphasis in the original]

     The Russians are poor BECAUSE, for decades, their Government confiscated 100% of the property and wealth of that unfortunate people. And, since no one in Soviet Russia actually owned anything, they were little more than slaves to their Government; and slaves are notoriously inefficient and unproductive. After all, if you will not personally benefit from your own labor, what would be your motivation to work beyond mere sustenance? If bustin’ your hump only entitles you to the same “equal” share as the slacker, how long would it be before you joined the ranks of the slackers?

     The whole point of the story was, at least, in my opinion, that, this American Government has now confiscated so much of our wealth and property, and has become so cavalier regarding its use, and regarding the citizens who actually produce it, that it saw little or no problem with wasting billions of dollars to develop a special pen, when a simple, inexpensive pencil would have sufficed.

And, now, our ignominious, arrogant, mismanaging, book cooking, law breaking, spendthrift, CON-gressmen, have the audacity to publicly castigate a handful of private sector white collar criminals - for FRAUD?!! That must be what is meant by, “a jury of your peers”! More like the pot calling the kettle black if you ask me. To quote ABC’s John Stossel, “Give me a break!”

This progressively (no pun intended) parasitic organism, which we euphemistically call “government”, does not produce wealth and prosperity; only a free society and a free market can possibly do that – just ask the Russians. Government can only serve to expedite the process; and only to the degree by which it protects us from force and fraud; and by “the alacrity with which” it otherwise stays out of the way. To the extent with which it legitimately performs that limited, negative task (of preventing force and fraud), we will remain a “super power”. However, when, instead of merely protecting us from force and fraud, the Government itself becomes the chief instigator of force and fraud, well, the results are right before our eyes. It’s just too bad that more of us seem not to get the point.

***

“Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself.” – Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis.

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