Personal Accountability

Thomas Jefferson said: 

If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat in our drink in our necessaries and our in our labors and our amusements our callings and our creeds as the people England are our people like them must to labor sixteen hours in the twenty . . . And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second that second for a third and so on till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automaton of misery to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins indeed the bcllnin omnium in omnia which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world have mistaken it for the natural instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that and in its train wretchedness and oppression. 

When we talk about the current economic downturn here is a skit by SNL that teaches a very important lesson: http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff

 

Also, here is a news clip that shows the temperament of those that are concerned about the government's current refusal to allow the free market to take its course: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

The Freedom to Fail

Like it or not we live in a world of opposites. In order for there to be good there must be bad. If there is right there must be wrong. If there are the honest and upright, there must also be the deceptive and the corrupt. All of us face choices in our lives and in order for us to have a chance to progress there must be a chance for regression as well.

Freedom is not found in government making sure that all of us have jobs, homes, educations, cars, healthcare or our fair share. Freedom is measured by our ability to succeed. Succeed despite our challenges. Yet if we are to overcome challenges and truly succeed we must also have the freedom to fail. The freedom to fail states that we have the opportunity to go out into the world make choices, take risks; and in some cases make the wrong choices, and take the wrong risks and in the process lose anything and everything. The freedom to succeed says that we have the opportunity to go out into the world, make choices take risks; and that if we make the right choices and take the right risks, we could gain only what our abilities limit us to.

Here is the crux of the matter, just like where there is good there must be the opportunity for evil, if there is an opportunity for success there must be the freedom of failure. We as Americans are trying to cheat the system. We are selling out to the notion that we are entitled to success and that our government should protect us from the freedom to fail. The problem is that this is an illusion. A perfect example is the housing crisis and Obama's plan to help Americans, that have bought a house they can't afford, pay for their houses. Sure people have lost their jobs, sure people will lose their homes, and they will fail in their efforts to secure their own property. We cry out instantly, we can't let them lose their houses! Yet the truth is that if we don't allow them to fail then we will never allow them to truly succeed. You see there is something to be said about the person who despite all challenges manages to overcome them and earn, scrape and save to enable him or her to afford to buy their own place. This is true success. This is the American dream. What is happening now at the federal level frustrates that dichotomy. The chance to succeed is lost because the freedom to fail is being taken from us.

The sad reality is that every time we allow government intrusion for the sake of protection from failure, we doom ourselves to the very thing we are seeking to prevent.