First and foremost, I would like to point out that the cornerstone of my belief is that everyone should leave everyone else alone, for the most part. What I mean is that most people are physically and mentally capable of taking care of themselves and, thus, should not be left to succeed or fail on their own merit. As long as your life is honest and peaceful, you should be free to either mess up your life and die in a ditch or do all the right things and die happily surrounded by friends and family. I believe this because the situation you find yourself in right and here and now is always the sum total of your choices. Such lines of thought hardly ever win many people over in this day and age because it is considered anti-social to consider a single mom with three kids working on minimum wage to be a loser. But, unless she was in a coma and raped by that guy Buck right up until that moment, her situation is her fault. It is really a nasty way of saying, “you reap what you sow.”
Given that foundation of thought, it is time I built the four walls of my political beliefs:
- Economics. Economics is defined as the study of the use of scarce resources that have alternative uses. That is the definition I got when I read Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics and I think it is the best definition of the subject. In terms of government and economics, you have to understand that the government does not produce anything. It has value in maintaining order, but it is not a business. A business, a good one, produces a product or service that increases the overall wealth of the producer. A government has a virtual monopoly on whatever “business” it decides to takeover. I believe that a government should stay out of economic interaction as much as possible mainly for this reason. It interferes with the natural market interactions that would happen anyway. Not even the Soviet Union, which was the most tightly controlled economy in recent history, could stop the natural laws of supply and demand. Without government in the way, the free market will create abundance.
- Social Issues. I believe that social issues start at home. It is up to the individual to ruin their own lives, as I have previously stated. As such, I believe that immoral behaviors, such as gambling, prostitution, and substance abuse should not be illegal. Like I said, as long as your life is honest and peaceful, I do not believe you should be stopped from being a total idiot. Crime, in my view, is when one individual either attempts to or successfully takes away another individual’s life, liberty, or property through force or fraud. This is a common libertarian view. But I believe that while immoral activities are detrimental to individuals, that does not mean the government should be stepping in and saving people from themselves. In my view, you are responsible for you and if you cannot take proper care of yourself, then you should face the consequences of those actions. Criminalizing such behavior only adds legitimacy to the nanny state. If we all want to get rid of the welfare system, as most conservatives do, then we have to accept that people are going to be morons.
- Law Enforcement. For me, I think that the police motto, to protect and serve, is just an excuse for tyranny. First of all, able-bodied people are capable of protecting themselves. Why they would insist on relying on the police force all the time for their protection is foolish. The police are the domestic representation of government force. They should be the last line of protection, when all else has failed and all your options have been exhausted, not the first. Second, I believe that law enforcement should consist of cleaning up and straightening out most crimes, not preventing them. The only sure fire way to prevent them is to lock us all in containers and hook our brains in to one massive computer. Speeding tickets, for example, are more about government shakedowns and police officers on power trips rather than maintaining our safety. After all, how often do you speed and how often do you get speeding tickets? There are cases where the police should act to prevent crimes and this is usually when the police have knowledge ahead of time of a crime about to be committed. Otherwise they should be there to disperse the crowds and ensure a resolution to the crime. As for criminal justice, I firmly believe in innocent until proven guilty. The prosecutor will have to work hard for the conviction, the defense attorney will have a much easier time. However, once a criminal is convicted, then the punishments should be hard, swift, and leave a huge scar (either emotional or physical).
- Military. The military represents the ultimate force of government. Their sole purpose is to kill people and break things faster and in larger quantities than the enemy they are fighting. As such, they should only be used when Congress formally declares war. There is no scenario where they should be employed as the world’s police. That is nothing more than Hollywood entertainment. I have yet to hear of a case where we had to deploy troops without Congressional approval on foreign lands or civilian lives would be lost. That scenario almost never happens in real life. I believe that war should be rare and that we have way too much presence overseas in various places. The rest of the world is none of our business. In many cases, other nations should be fending for themselves and taking care of hostile neighbors. That said, I also believe that our military has been sissified by bureaucrats in uniforms sitting comfortably here on American soil. They write up these pointless rules of engagement when they themselves have never experienced combat. I say, when we deploy our troops, anything goes. And once our objective has been reached, as outlined by Congress’ terms of surrender in their declaration of war, then we pull out and leave.
In any case, this is how I think and those are just some of my viewpoints on general issues. I hope it helps all of you non-existent readers out in the future when reading my future blog entries.