Principles of Liberty (Seven)

Principle Number Seven
By William L. Pressgrove

“The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.” (The 5000 Year Leap, Skousen, p. 115)

This boils down to nothing more than a declaration that government doesn’t have the right to take from the “haves” to give to the “have nots”. The logic behind this principle is rather simple. Someone cannot delegate to another the power to do something they themselves don’t have the power to do. The example in The 5000 Year Leap is one of protection of one’s property. You could take responsibility to protect your property by standing guard 24/7/365, but then you wouldn’t have time to do anything else. However, if you have authority to do this you would have authority to delegate that authority to the government and they could established a police force to guard everyone’s property in return for a wage, that would be levied to everyone, that will provide them with a living. (Skousen, pp. 115-116)

To continue the analogy, Skousen added the following scenario:

But suppose a kind-hearted man saw that one of the neighbors had two cars while another neighbor had none. What would happen if, in the spirit of benevolence, the kind neighbor went over and took one of the cars from his prosperous neighbor and generously gave it to the neighbor in need? Obviously, he would be arrested for car theft. No matter how kind his intentions, he is guilty of flagrantly violating the natural rights of his prosperous neighbor, who is entitled to be protected in his property. (Skousen, p. 116)

So when the kind hearted neighbor returns from his term in prison, he still sees that the one neighbor is still walking and the other has two cars. He wants to remedy the inequity, but this time he is going to do it “by the book”. He goes to the mayor and city council and convinces them that there should be an ordinance that makes things more equal. The ordinance would read something like this: “Be it enacted that in this community no person can possess two cars until all other persons have at least one, therefore those possessing two cars must relinquish custody of their second and subsequent cars to the proper authorities to be distributed to those who have none.” Setting aside the obvious lunacy of such an ordinance, what would then happen in this community? The neighbor with two cars would have to give up one to the neighbor who had none. Now it was done legally because it is a city ordinance.

What happened to the prosperous neighbor’s right to his property? It has been dissolved. He no longer has a right to all of his property, but must give it up because it is “the law”. Not only has he lost his property, but he has lost any right to justice in the matter because it is “the law”. The real danger here is that once government starts taking liberties with property rights of one, then no one can feel secure in their property. The government can take anything they deem necessary from anyone and that person has no recourse because government stands behind the established law. This is how “legal” crimes are committed in this country on a daily basis.

In order to give this type of tyranny a more pleasing appearance the unalienable rights that were declared in the Declaration of Independence have been abandoned in favor of what are now known as “civil rights”. The problem with this is that civil rights are rights given by the government, and what the government “giveth”, the government can “taketh” away. Today we allow many things to be done by the government that we don’t have the authority to do ourselves in the name of “equality”. In reality we shall discover that in order for government to enforce what it calls equality in the name of benevolence, we all lose more and more rights and freedoms to a more and more despotic government each day. When are we going to wake up to what is going on?