Henry, if he wanted to do so, could have merely crossed the Blue Ridge west of Charlottesville and never seen another government agent again. Illusion of Self-Government Thomas Jefferson complained, in the Declaration of Independence, that Britain had “erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People and eat out their Substance.” Yet the swarms of officers King George III sent to America would have barely filled a mid-sized regional office of the IRS or city zoning department today. Liberty has been hollowed out in modern America. But it is still worshipped as though it were a religious relic.
“Americans today,” wrote one of the founders of the libertarian movement, Rose Wilder Lane, in 1936, “are the most reckless and lawless of peoples.” But, she immediately continued, “we are also the most imaginative, the most temperamental, the most infinitely varied.” This was after the Lincoln administration had annihilated the principle of self-government... but before the Roosevelt team had finished its work. By the end of the 20th century, Americans were required to wear seatbelts. And they ate low-fat yogurt without a gun to their heads. By the start of the 21st century, they were submitting to strip searches at airports and demanding higher taxes to “protect freedom.” The recklessness seems to have been bred out of them. The variety, too. North, south, east, and west, people all wear the same clothes and cherish the same ideas. Liberty has been hollowed out in modern America. But it is still worshipped as though it were a religious relic. Bill Bonner is the underground news mogul and founder of The Agora publishing company. He’s written the NewYork Times bestselling book Empire of Debt and most recently published Hormegeddon: HowToo Much of A Good Thing Leads to Disaster . He is one of the great writers and minds in America today and also publishes a free daily letter, Bill Bonner’s Diary , which you can sign up for here: bonnerandpartners.com.
Likewise, the Founding Fathers kvetched about taxation without representation. But history has shown that representation only makes taxation worse. Kings, emperors, and tyrants must keep tax rates low; otherwise, the people rise in
rebellion. It is democrats who eat out the substance of the people: The illusion of self-government lets them get away with it. Tax rates were, on average, only 3% under the tyranny of King George III. Among the dubious blessings of democracy are average tax rates 10 times as high.
American Liberty
30
September 2019
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