When does concern become tyranny? When does help become control? Rights come from responsibility. I have the right to control my child because I am responsible for their well being and up until they have learned certain things they are incapable of informed consent as they do not understand the consequences of their actions.
We allow the government to regulate food because we cannot know ourselves if the food was properly grown or if it is a danger to us. Having said that, we can knowingly choose to eat things that have side effects like foods high in cholesterol or fat. Some people choose to eat unprocessed or raw milk. It is illegal in many places to sell it. People who choose to eat such things understand the risk. Preventing them from doing so is tyranny.
People are also seriously beginning to discuss having an obesity tax, following how we tax cigarettes. We will tax bad things so that you will do good things. The true tyranny is of the masses, democracy can still be tyranny if used to regulate private matters.
I smoke cigarettes everyday. It is not a good habit; but, I choose to smoke. I know what it can do, my father smoked and lost a lung to cancer. Smoking has been so regulated that it is tyranny. Overweight people often support this tyranny. When they go to tax obesity I will not support it even though I am regulated. Many smokers will support it to get back at society for regulating them. The "If you regulate me then you should get these other bad habits" type of mentality is wrong. We don't become freer by regulating others.
The government is NOT responsible for me beyond being responsible for keeping other countries from controlling our lives, protecting us from those we do not wish to live under. If we give the government that responsibility, it's rights are limited to what it needs to do to fulfill that obligation.
We are becoming a society that wants government to protect us from every little thing and assure us safety, I do not. I do not wish nor want the government to protect me from everything, it cannot assure our safety, we were born to die and risk is necessary if we are to grow. Taking chances, knowing the possible risks and consequences is how we grow and learn.
What value would life have if we remained children and never got past our childish ways of looking at the world? Little if any. What good is there in being a baby sucking on it's mothers nipple for eternity? What is the difference between being a parasite and being in a symbiotic relationship? It is what you give back.
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2 comments:
Let's just go with an across the board SIN tax. The government can regulate morality! Bwahahahaha!
I smoke too. I think the reason the govt got away with imposing crazy taxes on smokers is that the percentage of smokers has greatly declined over time. The majority finds it easier to single out and punish the minority.
When my state started really pushing down on smokers, some suggested that alcohol ought also be taxed more heavily. Funny, the boozing majority thought that would be unfair. After all, there's no such thing as second-hand drunkenness, right? Tell that to the families of alcoholics, or the families of victims of DUII drivers.
An obesity tax, eh? Are they going to make all of us get in line every April 15 and have our BMI's recorded?
Or tax the producers or purchasers of high-calorie, low-nutrition products? I know some people who eat these things and they are not obese.
Are they going to give fat people some time to lose weight before they start taxing? Subsidize programs to lose weight (like they do for smoking)?
Assinine!
"The government is NOT responsible for me beyond being responsible for keeping other countries from controlling our lives, protecting us from those we do not wish to live under."
I think that in many ways, despite all of our advantages, it's starting to look like much the same thing.
http://www.igopogo.com/final_authority.htm
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