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Confessions of a Homeschool Dad
Sep. 13, 2006
More Guarantees of Freedom, Less Actual Freedom
I've been reading over the last few months about the American Revolution and what started it, who did what, and how we pulled a win out of a pretty bad situation. So, when I was listening to the news and heard about all of the new freedoms we're going to give up, a thought occured to me:
We have more guarantees of freedom today than ever, but less actual freedom than when we were under King George.
Think about it - under King George, there were some basic rules. More or less, do what the king and his ambassadors say. Was there corruption? Sure. Could they house soldiers with you if they felt like it? Yep. Were we completely at their mercy? Without a doubt.
HOWEVER, whether it was because of better character then (less TV, ya know...) or something else, in reality, we were some pretty free people. Think about some of the freedoms we had those 230 years ago:
Free to open a business (as long as you didn't trade with the French - but who would want to trade with the French?!).
Free to hire (and fire) whomever you wanted. And you didn't have to pay any payroll tax, income tax, FICA, FUDA, SUDA, or any other of the 20% over basic wages we have to pay today.
No income tax. Make as much as you could or as little as you wanted. The King and his government weren't going to ask how much you made and then ask for 30% of it.
Speaking of taxes, King George was actually kind of a progressive king in that he basically applied "sales tax" to whatever was sold rather than sending a guy from house to house. And the tea tax that we got so upset about was around 7%.
Want to run a farm? Great. The king didn't care what kind of animals you owned, how many of them, or want you to put a GPS tracking device in each of their ears.
Education? Well, it's true that most people didn't have one. However, if you wanted an education, just get the area parents to chip in for a schoolmarm and open a local, one-room schoolhouse. No bureaucracy necessary - nor $10,000 per student in taxes.
The court system was extremely efficient. It turns out that not having an excess of laws meant that not a lot got broken. And if your neighbor hit you, you didn't take him to court. You hit him back.
Sick? Most likely you'd try some home remedy. Doctors were for once you couldn't stand up anymore. And, while you'd almost certainly die younger, it wouldn't be from seeing your health insurance bill or while waiting for your HMO Primary Care Physician.
Need drugs for some ailment? True, most of them didn't do much. But, if you could afford 'em, you could have 'em. If you couldn't afford 'em, you just lived with it. Can you imagine tens of thousands of people suffering from acid reflux and not getting their pills? Horrors!
Today, the taxes on everything we do are higher then the Founding Fathers could ever have imagined (though not has high as during the Carter administration...) There are governmental rules for doing anything that you are responsible for knowing at the Federal, State, and Local levels. Break 'em unknowingly and you'll face stiff fines and maybe some jail time.
With increasing survellience cameras everywhere (red-light cameras = surveillance cameras), limitations on your freedoms that bother others (don't try to smoke anywhere - and that gum smacking that you're doing is next!), and rampant waste of tax money (which means they'll need more, thank you), I'm going to go out on a limb and say were less free than ever.
Anyone want to go start a new country?
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