Our Enemy the State, published in 1935, Albert Jay Nock could not have any idea that liberty would have deteriorated to such an extent as it has in the present.
The responsibilities given to government will decrease the power of the People in proportion. It is inevitable that when people seek to become dependent on government, the government will take on those dependencies at a very high price: your liberties will erode until you have only privileges instead of rights.
Just imagine if local communities took responsibility for building roads. This task while seemingly complex, can be accomplished through cooperation with other communities more efficiently than relying on government. And local contractors hiring local workers would benefit, thereby stimulating local economic growth and prosperity.
Even when errors are made in engineering, it would be much simpler to remedy a few miles rather hundreds of miles of government mistakes. Not to mention the fact that government would use most of the funding to pay for studies and that which is left would not be sufficient to build anything.
Today we are faced with a runaway government that wants to restrict all freedom and only allow certain privileges to the People. The rewards will be rationing of the basic necessities of life rather than the freedom to choose what an individual considers his or her necessities.
"This is the gravest danger that today threatens civilization: State intervention, the absorption of all spontaneous social effort by the State; that is to say, of spontaneous historical action, which in the long-run sustains, nourishes and impels human destinies."
Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1922
In each installment of this series I will address each area that was once a choice and now has become a regulated privilege or mandatory program of government. I encourage readers to comment and offer their own experience and insights into the problems we face and the solutions to restore liberty to the republic.
Part II
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