It is not a surprise to libertarians that what is in the interest of the government may not remain in the interest of individuals in basic. Typically, the federal government’s interest is directly at chances with the interests of people in basic. The many wars waged by federal governments throughout history, for which common people paid ultimately with their lives, bear witness to this fact.
Wars are likewise waged on the domestic populations that the government apparently serves and safeguards. Under the guise of the greater or public great, which constantly require some sacrifice yet curiously dovetail with the government’s interests, people are the means if not the problem. In the words of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, they’re “supervised, examined, spied on, directed, legislated at, managed, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, managed, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about”– and taxed to finance the whole apparatus.
That it is the government vs. the people rather than the federal government for, by, and of the people is clear in the previous’s policies in practice in addition to in the declarations from its leaders. Very recently, Vice President Kamala Harris kept in mind that “When we buy clean energy and electric lorries and lower population, more of our kids can breathe tidy air and drink tidy water.” Yes, she said “lower population.”
The White Home quickly published an upgraded speech suggesting the VP had simply misread. She indicated to say pollution, not population.
It is certainly possible, if not most likely, that the VP misspoke/misread the prompt. However this too is highly troublesome. If you check out something and misread, it is since you avoid too quick through the text and your mind therefore includes the most likely mix of words. Thus the widely known concept “Freudian slip”– in unchecked moments we in some cases state what we indicate, or what remains in recent memory, instead of what we “should” state.
The VP misspoke, but what she said is indicative of what she has been thinking, what discussions have been going on around her, what is on the agenda at the White House, or in some other method present in her mind. She might have said that we should decrease protrusion, pollination, perversion, petroleum, or some other word that at a quick glimpse may look something like contamination. She didn’t. She said, “decrease population.” Why was “lower population” top of mind?
The apparent factor is that this is something that is often gone over in politics and more than likely also within the White House. Neo-Malthusianism, the concept that all issues in the present are due to “too many individuals,” and the seemingly apparent policy implication that we need to “lower” the variety of individuals living on this earth, is alive and well. It’s a hydra that by now has a lot of heads, just due to the fact that we’ve already chopped off a lot of (and, when it comes to the mythological animal, two grow up to replace each head sliced off).
The truth is, naturally, that whatever issues we have are much more quickly resolved if there are more people– more minds to find out services and more individuals to specialize under the department of labor. This is an unintuitive answer to the concern of what should be done to the issues, which requires (minimal) economic literacy to figure out. Regrettably, individuals rarely have such basic understanding– and amongst politicians it is an even rarer quality, merely due to the fact that in policy there are strong rewards to disregard financial reality.
As Thomas Sowell notoriously is quoted stating:
The very first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never ever enough of anything to fully please all those who want it. The very first lesson of politics is to neglect the very first lesson of economics.
This is undoubtedly so, and it explains the high cost of allowing government to infringe on the complimentary economy and voluntary society. Nevertheless, this particular parasite fails to understand the use it has for its host. Rather, she deems it a problem that ought to be made to disappear.