Safe In The Arms Of Government
By Henry Lamb
May 18, 2009
They don't sit around and plot ways to destroy freedom; they really think that what they are doing is good for the people, and for the nation. But they are wrong. Freedom restricted is freedom lost, and he who holds the authority to restrict freedom wields tyranny with each new restriction.
"They" are the new power brokers in Washington. Their answer to every problem is more government control. As government control expands, freedom is restricted. Government control is expanding at warp speed, and the loss of freedom is not even a consideration.
While the president stands before TV cameras to tell the people that he has no desire to run the banks or the car companies, his lieutenants take control of the banks and the car companies. A free market would squeeze out banks and car companies that cannot compete and replace them with product and service providers that are approved by the consumers. But "they" have no faith in a free market. They believe a free market produces greed and widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Government control eliminates excessive salaries and dictates the kind of cars that people should be driving. Therefore, government control, they contend, is better than freedom in the market place.
The free market has allowed greedy corporations to let contaminated food reach consumers. Therefore, government must tighten control over the food market. The TRACE Act of 2009 (Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act of 2009) is one of several bills that seek to put government in complete control of food production, processing, and distribution.
These bills will likely be merged into a single bill, and no one yet knows what the final bill will require, but it is clear that sponsors of the bills have no regard for the Constitution's privacy guarantees when they require that every livestock owner and the owners of every backyard garden register with the government. One bill would even require the submission to the government of a written plan for the production of food before food could be produced.
This lunacy is justified by the claim of improved food safety. But it destroys individual freedom, makes a mockery of private property rights, bloats government bureaucracy, swells the tax requirements and does nothing to improve food safety.
Government is already responsible for food safety. Every recall of beef or peanut butter is like a neon sign flashing government's inspection ineptitude. More law is not the answer; better enforcement of existing law is what is required. Government already has the authority, and the responsibility, to see that food is safe before it enters the distribution system. Forcing every private citizen who owns a livestock animal or plants a backyard garden to register and report to the government would be a massive loss of freedom while providing little or no improvement in food safety.
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