Philosophy of Law & Government

1. Principles of Government
2. Essential Principles for the Conservation of Liberty
3. Philosophy of Government Compared
4. Citizen Compact
5. New Constitutional Proposal

ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE
CONSERVATION OF LIBERTY

by Joel M. Skousen

INTRODUCTION

WHY DO PEOPLE FAIL TO PRESERVE LIBERTY?

WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE SUCH A DIFFICULT TIME RECOGNIZING ITS LOSS?

In response to these difficult questions regarding the loss of liberty, I have felt compelled to author this booklet. All free men need to determine just what are the essential principles that are necessary to conserve and defend individual, family, and group liberty from the slow, cancerous destruction of socialist, collectivist, and totalitarian tendencies of man.

The primal importance of this work lies in its fundamental premise: that there exists certain fundamental rights (life, liberty, ownership, and self-defense) that all men possess by virtue of their God-given standing as free-agents here on earth, which are superior to any government, constitution, or law which may be enacted by man to the contrary. While this idea is certainly not unique among the annals of jurisprudence, it has always been a rather nebulous idea that has found little consistent implementation in constitutional law. In all the many and varied attempts to define and construct a free society, this is the single most pressing issue upon which men have rarely been able to agree. Fundamental rights are difficult to define and even more difficult to list without fear of leaving something out, or worse yet, including things that are not true rights, but benefits or privileges granted by misguided governments.

Even the attempt by George Mason and other founding fathers of the American Constitution, to make a listing or "Bill of Rights" was limited to the worst abuses current at that time. The essential corollary rights and economic freedoms that they failed to specifically mention were some of the first fundamental rights to be lost to a hostile 20th century Supreme Court.

This work is an exposition and commentary on essential principles--those fundamental expressions of doctrine that support a comprehensive philosophy. In this case, the subject is liberty and the principles that I will attempt to illuminate and clarify are the fundamental and basic doctrines which, by either God-given mandate, or by time honored irrefutability, have been shown to be absolutely essential to the preservation of freedom. It is my basic purpose to establish the universal doctrines which lead to the establishment of proper civil governments and just law.

HOW DO THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY DIFFER FROM A CONSTITUTION?

Both a document of fundamental principles, and a constitution are necessary to establish and preserve liberty. The principles are built upon the foundation of the fundamental rights of man and establish the doctrinal justification for earthly law and governments. A constitution establishes the STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT and the general LAWMAKING POWERS OF THE NATION which, when properly formed, should both enable and restrict governmental power to the defense of those fundamental rights. In short, a constitution is a LAW GOVERNING LAWMAKING. A constitution should not contain specific laws or statutes, but rather only the laws which govern and restrict the specific lawmaking process. The only exception to this is where certain specific laws are included that the founders desire to come under the restrictive amendment powers of the constitution.

Some have questioned the need to declare these principles, stating that all such principles are found in the Constitution of the United States of America, generally considered the greatest constitution of liberty yet devised. But this is not true. Almost no principles are enunciated within the text of the Constitution, although it is very clear that specific principles and ideas guided the majority of the Founders in their deliberations. But there were also many false principles and bad ideas declared during the constitutional debates, some of which found their way into constitutional language or compromises.

Other times, true principles had to be obscured in general language so as not to offend the states who desired to uphold the institution of slavery, one of the most flagrant violations of the fundamental rights of man. The ultimate evidence of this intent to violate fundamental rights was the failure of the first Congress to ratify one of the proposed amendments, originally included in the "Bill of Rights" which would have made the "bill of rights" binding upon the States as well as the Federal Government.

Most of the representatives had a strong distrust for national government, and felt at the same time a high degree of trust in the willingness of the states to protect people's rights. After all, it was leaders in the separate states or colonies that had risen to fight British tyranny . This trust in the benevolence of the states was a natural, but somewhat naive assumption reflecting their own trust in themselves--the representatives of the States who were forming the new Constitution. They failed to see into the future, however, the inevitable rise of influence based politicians, rather than statesmen, who would rise to the temptation of buying votes with benefits and suppressing the rights of some in order to favor others. Some of state representatives voted against this amendment not only for its inherent implication of distrust for state governments, but because it would have prohibited certain acts inherent in slavery. In modern times, it has become obvious that state legislatures are as prone to violate fundamental rights as the Federal government.

The naive notion that certain forms of government regulation and control are acceptable as long as they are done at the "local level" is flawed and dangerous. State governments have become filled with large, imposing bureaucracies, and an even larger percentage of unprincipled politicians (especially Governors) buying votes with benefits and paying off political debts with government jobs and lucrative contracts for friends. Neither do state officials and legislators campaign on the wide range of political issues and ideas that Congressmen do--the only positions directly relevant to State offices are local city--county--state issues which tend to revolve around what each legislator has "done for his constituency". Certainly this is a part of national politics as well, but at least there exists a myriad of higher issues that can raise the national debate to the level of universal principles more easily.

Only the clear enunciation of the fundamental rights of man--rights which no man, or government can rightfully violate (even at the "local" level) will stand as a permanent bulwark against the slow erosion of liberty.

Let me clarify at the outset that this work is not attempting to discredit what I consider the inspired work of the majority of the America's constitutional founding fathers. My purpose is to clarify the work of those who really understood liberty, and reestablish the correct principles they did discover by rewording them in more formidable language that cannot be so easily reinterpreted by those with bad intent. I will also attempt to elucidate the errors of compromise that were made due to the "political realities" of 1779, and track the history of judicial interpretation which began to erode the American Constitution from its very inception.

The American system of government never was designed or intended to be a democracy. It was specifically designed as a constitutionally limited, representative federation of sovereign states--a restrictive type of REPUBLIC, where the powers of majority rule were exercised by and through elected representatives, and were limited to specific constitutionally delegated authority that protected the fundamental rights of all, including minorities (except slaves), from improper majority rule. The Supreme Court would not have been able to take such license with the constitutional wording had the founders been more precise in their language, and had established a primal document on principles such as the one you are about to read. Of course, if they had, the constitution would in all probability never been ratified by the states--there were too many vested interest involved in violating a few fundamental rights (especially slavery).

THE KEY TO LIBERTY IS THE UNIVERSAL RECOGNITION OF TRUE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS BY THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES, COUPLED WITH A WILL TO DEFEND THOSE RIGHTS BY FORCE OF ARMS.

These principles are only a strong deterrent to judicial and legislative misconduct where there exists sufficient historical background of democratic and majoritarian tyranny engraved upon the minds of a sufficiently large portion of the populace to cause them to be ever vigilant and distrustful of democracy. Unfortunately this is very difficult to achieve and maintain because the errors and damage from socialism and democracy are hidden errors, often appearing as failures of the free market. It takes a highly educated and wise majority of people to be able to sift through the obscuration of pseudo-educated liberals who throw out benign appearing and lofty concepts of compassion that secretly destroy other's rights. The psychological enticements of these corrupting philosophies will be discussed in more detail later.

The principles are not, in and of themselves, a specific list of prohibitions on evil forms of law or government--though they can be used to produce such a list. What the principles accomplish is to establish the legitimate basis for a government association (the defense of fundamental rights), and thereby requires that all government actions be justified as a defense of one or more of the fundamental rights of man. They also provide a short concise learnable set of ideas that can help people recognize bad law more easily. We must never underestimate the importance of keeping a simple set of mental tools before the common citizen so he can easily recall them to mind, and employ them to dismantle and analyze the ever-increasing sophistication and sophistry of modern law and judicial interpretation.

A good constitution should make clear reference to fundamental rights as the ultimate purpose of constitutional law, though the listing of fundamental rights must be beyond political confirmation, as I will discuss later. Thus, the existence of the principles, when acknowledged as the ultimate authority by its citizens, requires that constitutional interpreters look back to the fundamentals for their interpretive substance, which makes obvious distortions of constitutional law much more difficult.

Even with all this, the ultimate defense against the erosion of liberty has to reside in the personal arms of those free spirits who cherish liberty above indolence, pleasure and government enticements. A well armed citizenry is thus the only ultimate deterrence to both democratic or totalitarian tyranny, as long as it is coupled with the wisdom and zeal to know how to use the right of self-defense appropriately. And in the final analysis, as we are now observing throughout the western world, none of this makes any difference in the real world if people are too complacent and pleased with their worldly security to defend what is universally right for all. I fear we only see a fervor to fight for individual benefits and divisive ethnic interests in the modern world--all masked in the "sacred" name of preserving democracy.--that doctrinal anesthetic that puts men's mind to sleep with the illusory promise of equal rewards and benefits for all. Nothing could be more preposterous than that illusion, and nothing more deadly to the natural incentives of man to rise above his weaknesses.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO POLITICAL CONFIRMATION:

Because these rights are fundamental, meaning that they are God-given, inviolable, and superior to all forms of human government, they are also NOT SUBJECT TO POLITICAL CONFIRMATION. This is a radically new concept to those schooled to believe that the highest form of justice comes by democratic means. It becomes clear, under the concept of "inviolable rights" that fundamental rights should never be subject to ratification, even in a constitution, though they should be recognized and referred to by it. To do so would subordinate one's fundamental rights to the will of a majority--those who will vote for such fundamental rights, or worse yet, to deny them legal status by voting against them.

The latter case is very likely due to the fact that the fundamental rights prohibit popular government welfare schemes by holding the right to private property, among others, inviolate. Most of the constitutional founders did not favor democracy, knowing that raw, unlimited democracy could be totalitarian in nature. Their views were vividly confirmed as the world watched the tyrannical excesses of the democratic French revolution. a few years later. The clear historical propensity of democratic majorities to vote themselves benefits from other people's pockets was the prime reason why they selected a representative form of democracy (the Republic) and put strict limits upon the exercise of majority rule powers. As Jefferson put it, there was a necessity to "bind government down with the chains of the Constitution."

The requirement that elected representatives wield direct legislative powers rather than direct vote by all the people (democracy) is the essential element that constitutes a Republic. It is a tacit recognition that a fair amount of education and sophistication is necessary to sift through the sometimes difficult and subtle issues involved in making laws. But because of the potential for personal corruption in leaders, as well as other foibles of man (intellectual arrogance, excessive deference to people etc.) it is never enough to trust even a majority of representatives to safeguard fundamental liberties. The genius of the original American system was to actually limit the majoritarian powers of the people's representatives. This way, even a bad or corrupt majority could not make an unjust law--such laws were either prohibited outright by the constitution or put off-limits by the "enumerated powers" clause (that the government only possess specific enumerated powers, and nothing more. If strictly construed, it leaves no room for government to assume new powers. If it isn't specifically listed, they can't do it, no matter how popular. But sometimes bad law (especially of the social spending variety) become so popular that the representatives are pressed upon to amend the constitution to add such powers to the enumerated list. This is why it is clearly not a sufficient safeguard to place one's fundamental rights under the ratification and amendment process of a constitution.

Most Americans labor under the mistaken assumption that our Constitution safeguards all fundamental rights in the Bill of Rights. But this is not true. The founders were very fearful of making a list, concerned that something might be left out. So they left all "residual rights" to either the States or the individuals--a dangerous piece of general wording. Naturally the states took all the rest since no single individual has the power to demand and defend his residual rights, not being as powerful as an organized institution. At the same time, through poor education, we have almost universally lost all recognition of fundamental rights. No formal criteria or definition is found in the Constitution. Perhaps, even worse, people have also become accustomed to view existing law or interpretations of law as if they are the absolute "law of the land," rather than look to the Constitution--or beyond--to the ultimate law, in order to judge the validity of any law. There is a further sense of futility when one sees official injustice fortified and ratified by the very courts whose original function was to be a safeguard against such oppression.

In a judicial sense, another purpose in recognizing the supremacy of fundamental rights over statutory law, even exceeding constitutional interpretation, is to reduce the propensity of government officials to rely upon former legal precedents to justify the continued suppression of such rights. This declaration of rights puts all government officials on notice that all laws which violate fundamental rights are simply null and void, and that the burden is upon government to prove that such laws are in accord with fundamental rights. Most importantly, public officials should be aware that they are PERSONALLY LIABLE for any infringement of another's rights, and that men may ultimately and rightfully defend their fundamental rights with appropriate force, when no practical or fair legal recourse is possible.

NATURAL RIGHTS OR GOD GIVEN RIGHTS:

The occasional reference I have or will make to the ultimate sovereignty of God over man is not meant as a coercive statement which one must accept prior to accepting these principles and fundamental rights of man. The principles and rights listed are sufficiently self-evident that a man who chooses not to accept God may still accept them as "natural rights." They are protected regardless of their recognition of the source, though I have personally chosen to recognize God as the ultimate sovereign and giver of basic freedom.

In like manner, we could attempt to justify the recognition of family sovereignty based upon the "nature of man" which indicates that the family unit is the most practical way to raise children. I have chosen the theological basis that God is the spiritual creator and father of all mankind, and thus has the ultimate right to delegate that trust to parents, and to require an ultimate accounting of that trust. Once again, each is free to choose the basis for evidence of sovereignty as he sees fit. However, only the most enduring doctrine will produce sufficient fire in the minds of men to cause them to fight for these rights amid increasing democratic tyranny.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS:

You will note that I have not used the traditional words "inalienable rights." The reason is simple. The founders used the word (incorrectly, I believe) to mean that government could not rightfully violate those rights. But the word "inalienable" means that which the person himself cannot give away or alienate from himself a right. This, however, is not true, as applied to fundamental rights. A person CAN give up these rights, as long as it is done under the terms of voluntarily contract.

One may enter into a contract, for example, to put himself into a non-free condition. This does not constitute slavery when it is done voluntarily, although the results may appear similar. We do it, to a degree, every time we sign a mortgage where we place our income and our property in jeopardy for a specific time. Or, as in a prepaid contract for performance, (where one accepts a large sum of money advance of performance), one would be obligating himself to serve the other party till the contractual obligation is complete. This is a type of temporary bondage we enter into voluntarily because we receive mutual benefits. These other benefits compensate for our temporary lack of freedom. In other words, we choose to temporarily trade some of our freedom of action in order to gain other benefits. Whether such exchanges for "rights" for benefits are done wisely is another question, but the freedom to do so is clear.

The key to understanding what constitutes a true fundamental right is to focus on false rights.

FALSE RIGHTS: There are many false rights being promulgated in today's society, mostly due to the politician's attempt to entice voters to view benefits as if they were rights. Three of the most popular are the so-called "right" to a job, "right" to medical care or the "right" to an education. Let us apply these claims to the definition of a true fundamental right and see if they qualify. Remember that the main criteria that determines whether or not an action or state of being is protected as a right is whether or not all men can simultaneously possess the "right" in question without compelling anyone to perform a service in their behalf.

In the case of education, we cannot all receive an education without compelling someone to teach, provide the facilities, the curriculum and the books. Thus education, through others' efforts, must be a benefit based upon contractual mutual obligations, and not a right--no matter how essential it is deemed by the users thereof. On the other hand, self-education would be a right as long as no one was compelled to assist you involuntarily.

As to the "right" to a job, we may ask, in like manner, if all people can claim a right to a job without compelling someone to provide that job and the money for a salary. Obviously not. In reality, a job is the exclusive property of the employer who owns the money and the facilities. The labor portion of the job is the exclusive property of the laborer. The negotiations as to the rate of exchange for the owner's money and the laborer's efforts must be left to the arena of free contract. Neither has a "right" to attach the others' property or effort--each can only voluntarily exchange what he owns for what he perceives the other offers in return.

Medical care can never be a fundamental right, either, as it would clearly force doctors, nurses and hospital owners to become slaves to those who demand the benefit. You may think they are not slaves because they are being highly paid. But if you, the patients, are not paying, then someone else is, and that person (even if a group of taxpayers) are partially enslaved for the beneficiary's sake. Someone is always partially enslaved whenever the direct beneficiary of any service doesn't have to pay, and someone else or some group is not voluntarily paying the bill.

A more complete analysis of all the fundamental rights of man are given in the next section

THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF MAN:

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT #1: LIFE

The RIGHT TO LIFE itself from conception to natural death except as a consequence for a crime against the rights of others.

This most basic of all rights, the RIGHT TO LIFE, is defined as broadly as possible in order to preserve innocent life from external attack. After much contemplation, I believe that life should be protected FROM CONCEPTION since there is, at the very least, a unique life IN THE FORMATION PROCESS. While others would attempt to deny any "right to life" to the fetus because of lack of full and positive scientific proof of "independent life", it is my belief that where there is doubt, or where error is probable, relative to life, we ought to ERR IN DEFERENCE TO LIFE, not against it.

Some also dwell on the fact that there is doubt as to when the fetus becomes independent life from the mother. But even a new born baby is not fully independent to sustain life. It would seem more appropriate to base one's protection of life from conception based upon the fact that unique life, a separate and distinct entity from the mother and father, is IN THE FORMATION PROCESS. It is not particularly relevant whether it is independent yet of the mother or not.

ABORTION: Let's consider the case of abortion carefully. As in all the most difficult cases of law, we are faced with an apparent conflict of rights here, between the mother and the child. But upon close analysis, there is no such conflict, for each party to the conflict is exercising rights during different time frames. First, both mother and father, under voluntary circumstances, have already exercised their right when they chose to engage in marital relations--which was previous to the new child's existence. Like all other rights involving positive acts, freedom may, and usually does, become linked to consequences which the acting parties are bound to accept as part of the responsibility for those actions as they affect others. This is always true where an innocent third party is directly affected by such an act. In this case, because a child has been engendered, the parents are both obligated (not just the mother) to the engendered child in nurturing him or her to the point of self-sufficiency.

Since the child is the innocent affected party, being engendered by the acts of others, his right to preservation must be held superior to any desires of the parent or parents to terminate the pregnancy, especially for reasons of mere personal convenience. There is no right to terminate the pregnancy any more than there is a right to terminate any other voluntary contract or involuntary consequence of a responsible act which affects an innocent third party. Therefore, there is no "right" to an abortion of convenience, though there may exist some circumstances where the prosecution of this violation of the right to life can be distinguishable both in seriousness and intent from murder.

There are certain instances where there IS a legitimate conflict between the rights of the mother and those of the fetus. In the rare case where the life of the mother is clearly in danger due to the pregnancy, the mother, having a fully developed existence in life already, should be accorded the superior standing.

The cases involving rape, involuntary incest or other violations of rights of the mother, which results in pregnancy, are not so clear. What is clear is that where there is no attributable responsibility for the pregnancy to the mother, she cannot be forced to bear the consequences. Put another way, the fetus is a direct result of a crime, though not a knowing participant in the criminal act. The fetus is still as innocent as the violated woman and thus does not necessarily deserve to lose its standing to the right to life. Here then is a clear conflict of simultaneous rights. But the resolution of the problem is not so conflicting. In most cases the fetus is acting upon the mother in a manner which is only inconvenient and laborious, and yet on the other hand, an abortion against the fetus would be FATAL. The fact that she has previously been wronged does not necessarily justify the killing of the fetus, especially when the mother is not facing a commensurate conflict to her right to life.

Most arguments surrounding this issue stem from desires to be rid of any remembrances of the evil act. Though I do not want to denigrate the reality of such emotional pain, I believe it is resolvable in almost all cases without abortion. While I would clearly favor the bearing of the child, with the option of placing the baby in an adoptive home, I would not favor the prosecution of a mother who chose not to bear the child in this case. Because there are such closely conflicting rights, it ought to be left as a matter of conscience, leaving the final judgment to God. This is an example of an area of legitimate difference between people who still agree on these basic principles.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: As to other ramifications of this right to life, this right may be placed in jeopardy when a person is engaged in violating another's rights. The second part of the statement stipulates the essential condition upon which one may lose his life involuntarily. The right of self-defense can sometimes justifiably end another's life or a capital crime may be punishable by death after prosecution by the due process of legitimate authority, as determined by constitutional law.

This first fundamental right does not preclude the use of capital punishment. All of the fundamental rights of man are only valid insofar as one is not acting to violate another's right. Since one clearly has the right to defend oneself to whatever degree necessary to eliminate the threat, the possibility of death being meted out as the consequence for aggression is also clear. One cannot claim all of his fundamental rights while in the process of destroying another's rights. That is why treason is usually a capital crime when acting to destroy a government which is legitimately defending fundamental rights. Revolution against a tyrannical government, however, is not treasonous.

The larger question in capital cases surfaces when the aggressor is caught after the fact, and he is no longer in the act of aggression. Death can and should be applied insofar as the criminal is still a threat to the right to life of others. It is clearly the most complete deterrent to this person acting again to violate another's life. Surety about a criminal's future disposition to do evil is difficult to determine except by multiple, competent witnesses to such threats. However, a fairly clear predisposition to criminality is demonstrated by the occurrence of a second offense. Imprisonment should only be used for criminals with clear remedial potential and should be self supporting by the labor of the inmates so as not to act as a violation of the property rights of law abiding citizens.

There are certain COROLLARY RIGHTS TO LIFE that are related to man's innate characteristics surrounding life: the ability to think, believe, and reason--all in some ways distinguishable from rudimentary life itself. Every person has a right to his own mind, to believe, reason and think as he wishes. Only his actions based upon those thoughts can bring him into conflict with others, and make him subject to consequences. In reality it is nearly impossible to deprive a person of his beliefs, or his thoughts. Therefore, one may ask, why state them as rights if they can't be violated?

The answer is found mainly in the grave dangers associated with new developments of mind control. The use of mind altering drugs and electronic manipulation of certain physical and emotional characteristics of the body are becoming more prevalent in totalitarian societies. Such physical threats, or other involuntary bombardments or harassment of the mind are a violation of the following corollary rights to life. However, the use of psychological devices to induce a response to advertising is not a violation since it is not involuntary. If you choose to watch television programming and its advertising, you shouldn't complain if you are affected by them. Open public advertisements, especially on public highway systems does not qualify as strictly voluntary and can be regulated, since one cannot easily avoid looking at it.

COROLLARY RIGHTS:

A. The right of free THOUGHT and JUDGMENT on the individual worth of ideas, people and things.

The very essence of freedom is the ability of men to make judgments concerning the relative merits of the ideas, people and things we encounter in life. Man is not completely self-sufficient and is therefore constantly searching for favorable items to enhance and provide for life. Despite our reluctance to accept the judgmental nature of our minds, we do, in fact, make thousands of judgments automatically each day. Our minds classify everything we see, hear, and feel about people, ideas and things, within seconds of input, without much conscious effort. Because there is a natural tendency from insecure elements of society to demonstrate hostility toward this freedom of judgment, it must be duly protected by law. Let me take a few moments to explain the nature of this hostility, that is rooted in socialist thought:

EGALITARIAN HOSTILITY TO PERSONAL JUDGMENT:

It is essential to your understanding of the threat to freedom to realize how socialism is made appealing to the majority. It all centers around the concept of judgment, and how the socialist breeds envy against those that have achieved high results. That inequality exists is undeniable. It will always exist because no two people are or ever will be exactly alike. Whether such inequality came about by just or unjust means is the only proper question.

The underlying assumption of socialism is egalitarianism--that all men are equal, and since we do not now have equal results it must have been due to exploitation. Let us analyze this proposition against the concept of RELATIVE INDIVIDUAL WORTH.

Every individual is unique, possessing different capabilities and personal characteristics that vary from time to time according to the correctness of one's thoughts, desires and actions. The sum total of all these characteristics and skills determines our TOTAL TRUE WORTH. The concept of truth worth is powerful. It brings to mind immediately questions of "what am I really worth, as a person." Each person has a fairly good idea, at any given moment, what his true worth is relative to two things: how he compares himself to others and how he compares to what he thinks he SHOULD be. Each person is in a constant struggle to get others to recognize his worth AT LEAST AS HIGH as he esteems himself. Note that very few people protest being esteemed higher than how they perceive their own true worth.

If you doubt that people possess such a concept of total true worth, try treating someone who you esteem highly as if he were of little worth. His negative reaction to such treatment should be enough to convince you.

One's total true worth is really a composite of numerous specific worths in different talents and skills plus a vital factor reflecting one's general moral character. In other words, people may possess high worth in numerous skills and yet be so offensive in personal character that hardly anyone will accord them high TOTAL worth.

Not all people are honest enough to accept their low true worth as a reflection of their own failures or weaknesses. Rationalization and excusing of one's weaknesses, or blaming them on childhood abuse or environmental influence are common everywhere. There are legitimate ways to improve one's worth, but most people are enticed into the new and popular social doctrines proclaiming that "I'm OK and You're OK"--everyone accept us as we are. This is like a mutual compact of blindness where everybody sees, but pretends not to see, or at least, not to tell. It is only a game for fools and manipulators who make money by telling people what they want to hear.

The more people become intimidated into playing like they never judge another's worth (which is impossible) the more people feel they have a "right" not to be judged. This is dangerous. People stop changing and improving. People begin playing games with reality, trying to alter people's perception of true worth instead of working to improve. One of the most common games is where people try to cover up their low worth in one area of character by promoting and emphasizing some other more narrow, but successful skill or worth they possess. For example, some high ranking military or government officers with low character have found great difficulty in maintaining any respect after retirement, when their rank is no longer visible. They fail to realize that their previous honors may only have been an illusion based upon respect for the rank--not the person. These are the type that in desperation to hold onto their former prestige get very offended, even after retirement, if you do not address them by their former rank. They may keep symbols and titles on their mailbox, on their cars, and on every wall of the house just to ensure that the illusion of honor is maintained.

People with low or partially low true worth, who fear the consequences of others' free judgment (concerning them), are the first to embrace the doctrine of egalitarian socialism. The doctrine of egalitarianism has been growing across academic and religious circles for many years. As mentioned before, the egalitarian proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that any inequality of men is due to exploitation and prejudice. The concept that all men were "created equal" or that they will ever be absolutely equal is patently false. Not even the egalitarian academics believe it, having presumed that they are wise enough to set themselves up above others as world planners. Jefferson didn't even believe that when he wrote it in the Declaration of Independence. He took George Mason's phrase "all men are created equally free and independent" and shortened it, perhaps assuming that everyone would know he was referring to equal freedom before the law and God, rather than absolute equality. But poor public education (which Jefferson promoted) quickly ensured that these essential assumptions were lost from public consciousness

Egalitarianism possesses a high degree of hostility to personal judgments of others. It has even obtained a large foothold within the Christian community out of a false understanding of Matthew, Chapter 7, verse 1: "Judge not that ye be not judged." But is it clear from the wording alone that it is not a blanket prohibition against judgment, which is mentally impossible, but rather a severe caution against IMPROPER judgment. In the ultimate sense the correct interpretation must be construed even more narrowly, since it is obvious that even if a man judged unrighteously, God would not stoop to return unrighteous judgment upon him. I believe the word judgment here refers to ultimate CONDEMNATION of the soul of man, which must be left to God. In other words, he that condemns totally, and unjustly, shall also be condemned.

But all of this points to a major feature relating to freedom of judgment: just as in the free market of economics, we demand our right to judge the value of a product and offer value accordingly, so there is an identical free market in the judgment of other people and their relative worth. That is what you do when you judge the relative worth of another's service potential. Services are the reflection of our desire to work together in the sharing of specialized skills--as a way of improving our leverage over the insecurities of life. The fact that specialization exists as a natural outgrowth of free labor is prima facia evidence of the innate inequality of man. In reality, it is a blessing, not a curse, due to the wide variety of labor tasks needed in the world.

When you are bidding for labor or a service, you are actually bidding for at least a portion of that person. You are making a judgment mostly pertaining to his specific worth related to the service, but his total true worth can also play a large role. Many an employer has selected a man of lower specific skill as a welder, for example, because he manifests a good personality, is honest and appears to have a stable personal family life. While others may protest vigorously that their personal life has nothing to do with their welding skill, the employer would disagree, as is his right. He doesn't want the hassle of hiring people every month or so. The more stable the lifestyle of a person, the more cost efficient is his investment in the laborer. Simply because the employer may not be able to legally define what he views as "a stable lifestyle" does not detract from the reality that he can recognize things that he believes, even subconsciously, are representative of stability. That brings us to class judgments.

CLASS JUDGMENTS:

A person's mind, as part of its self-protective function, classifies certain characteristics he views in others as good or bad, safe or dangerous, etc. We place people who share common characteristics with others into generalized groups, or classes, to facilitate quick recognition of those same traits if they should appear again in someone else. This is what constitutes a "class judgment." Everyone makes them, even those who try their best not to consciously recognize that fact.

Class judgments are not necessarily evil. They can be either good, bad or in between, depending on the accuracy of the person making the judgment. Being open minded or non-prejudicial is not fooling oneself into thinking he doesn't make class judgments, but in consciously being open to new input, and constantly "cross checking" with other input to either confirm or revise one's opinions. A fair minded person always recognizes that no matter how consistent certain classes of people seem to be, there are always exceptions, inducing him to keep an open mind.

Personnel managers and employers use highly sophisticated class judgments constantly to enhance their ability to select new employees. When a certain manner or way of dress shows a history of instability, a competent personnel manager consciously or subconsciously begins to avoid selecting those types for interviews. While some may protest that he is forming prejudices, let us remember that his time to interview and make decisions is limited. When an employer is prohibited from making class judgments, such as requesting a certain class of people from an employment agency, he is robbed of his time, which is money, which is property; the ownership of which is a fundamental right. He is then forced to interview many more people than he normally would if he were free to pre-select generalized classes of applicants that, by experience, promise a higher rate of success.

THE RIGHT TO MAKE PRIVATE DISCRIMINATIONS: The benefits of making class judgment are clear to the person who is busy and far outweigh the mistakes that occur in closed-minded people. But no one has a right to demand that he or she be judged according to any certain standard--this is always a matter of conversion and negotiation. You have to convince others of your worth. Even though some won't give you the time to do so, you do not own his time and cannot force anyone to give you an interview--no matter how "unfair" you think it is. You can always go elsewhere and usually find someone who is willing to recognize your true worth. Remember that people of really high worth are rare and high worth employers are always on the look out for them. The trouble comes when a person may have high general character worth, but he is seeking a common job where there is a lot of equally qualified competition. It is easy to get lost in a big sea, no matter how valuable you may be. So upgrade your skills and find a smaller niche.

There is a reason why anti-discrimination laws are damaging to minorities in the long term. The more government tries to force employers to hire minorities, the more strongly employers are convinced minorities are an undesirable class of employees. Even if government prohibits the free exercise of judgment, it can never stop people from making those judgments in their mind. When government tries to enforce equality of results in the name of "opportunity", freedom of choice is quickly replaced by reverse discrimination.

Unfortunately, the more the judgment process is driven underground, the more mistakes people make in those judgments. Eventually both employers and minorities are harmed as business suffers from bad employment decisions and other employees become hostile to the reverse discrimination, widely mandated by liberal courts.

Laws which deny to a person the right to act upon his class judgments, especially concerning race, and gender have wide acceptance. But whether or not you agree or disagree that a person can come to some rational, general distinctions about people relative to race, religion, or sex, is irrelevant. The essential point relative to freedom is whether or not it is proper for government to restrict private judgments in this or any other area where no rights are violated. Once we allow government, by law, to attack some judgments, there is no way to protect any other class judgment from attack.

When government has the arbitrary power (and it is ARBITRARY) to select which class judgments are evil and which are acceptable, there is absolutely nothing to prohibit politicians from expanding that list to protect fat people, crazy people, aids infected homosexuals or Marxists from private class judgments. Note that while the principles of liberty allow people the freedom to engage in private, voluntary evil practices, it also protects the right of others to judge them as evil, even for their private acts, and to exclude them from employment or association. Neither does the public sector have to accept all forms of conduct. Like any other association, it can set down guidelines and rules of conduct based upon the limits of the originating by-laws agreed to by the majority of citizens. Nobody has a "right" to a government job any more than a private one.

The favorite target for the prohibition of our right to make discriminatory class judgments involves labor. Labor unions, feminists, homosexuals, and every other purveyor of false minority rights has been in a desperate struggle to use the power of government to make it illegal, first to judge by classes (but only their class) in the selection of labor for jobs. Jobs are first improperly defined as a right, which they are not. Next, they assert that no one can be denied a "right" because of race, color or creed. But that is a non-sequitor. A true right cannot be abridged for anyone--whether by race or any other reason, except aggression against the rights of others. But the real point is that a job, as previously explained, is NOT a right of the worker. It belongs to the EMPLOYER as an extension of his property rights. The only right the laborer has is to offer or withhold his labor--which he can do regardless of his race, color or creed.

Thus, while it is almost impossible, short of damaging or drugging the mind, to stop a person from making judgments, man has sought, by use of improper law to stop the exercise of free judgment. When the exercise of free judgment, even when discriminatory, is prohibited, the essence of free thought is lost as well. In the final analysis, the prohibition of the exercise of free judgment is generally a violation of the following rights involving freedom of action.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT #2: LIBERTY

To ACT without external or prior restraint when those actions are not in direct and harmful conflict with the rights of others.

This is the basic law of freedom--the right to do anything in the pursuit of "life, liberty, and happiness", including that which others may think dangerous, or harmful to SELF, as long as others' fundamental rights are not infringed in the process.

I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not condone or approve of the evil actions that some persons perform with their freedom to act, but we must clearly defend their freedom to fail, to make wrong or even evil choices, so long as others are not compelled to participate. The price of freedom is that we must allow people the liberty, within these bounds, to make poor judgments.

Incidentally, the foregoing explains why freedom is not a utopian system except when the average true worth of the citizens of such a society is high. Why? Freedom is the NON-SYSTEM which, by individual negotiations for worth, allocates (over time) to each product, service, person or idea the results most correctly correlated to its actual true worth.

What is the self-regulating nature of this negotiation for worth? The fact that nobody minds getting rated higher than how he perceives worth, but that he will vigorously protest when rated lower. In the absence of legalized coercion by private or government sources, each person acting as the guardian of his own worth tends to force all values to eventually move toward their actual worth. All deviations from true worth are temporary and will adjust towards reality over time.

Let me emphasize again, if the man of high worth cannot convince a prospective employer of that worth, or cannot get a fair hearing, he searches for another who will. If he runs out of time or money and cannot afford to wait, he may accept a low paying job temporarily, but he will be inwardly searching for more reward for his worth. All of this leads to higher supply and demand of things and people of value in society--leading to higher efficiency and prosperity to all. Any other forced system of restricted free judgment leads to lower supply of both competency and quality of people and products, with a commensurate higher price for diminishing quality.

The result is that when people's true worth, as a whole, is high (which includes an assessment of their character) freedom produces magnificent results. Where low true worth is predominant, either generally, or in major classes of persons, freedom will produce justifiable class differences at best, and justifiable failure at worst--in either case, freedom allocates the highest degree of justice according to real worth.

That is why freedom ultimately only works well with good, moral people. That statement is not a license to demand that we enforce righteousness upon everyone, but it is a warning of ultimate consequences for a nation that disregards divine promptings and warnings that come to all through conscience.

The key to the success of liberty, given these human liabilities, is not in surrounding men with regulatory edicts which subject all actions and desires to prior restraint and control of others, but in the vigorous prosecution (just consequences for their actions) when they cross that delicate line between voluntary, self-degenerate practices and harmful consequences to others. And I think the punishments ought to be very severe for harm done under the influence of drugs or alcohol--especially for second offenses.

Additionally, I do not wish to concentrate on the adverse consequences of freedom except to point out that one must be willing to accept a fair amount of "victimless" consequences of man's poor judgment in order to preserve the freedom of those who exercise good judgment. Private drunkards will fail to care for their families properly and children will suffer. But governments must be limited in their ability to intrude, except in cases of verifiable abuse. To do otherwise, that is, to give GOVERNMENT the power to decide what is good exercise of freedom and what is not--in the absence of visible and harmful damage to others--is to court totalitarian control. One of the most pervasive evils of our day is the government notion that it has the right to protect us from ourselves, even when no victims are caused. I will cover this in more detail under the right to self-responsibility.

VIOLATIONS OF GOD'S LAWS: Some Christians have mistakenly tried to make the point that there are no victimless crimes, and that we therefore ought to have government control of self-debasing acts between consenting adults. Certainly God commands that people abstain from these immoral acts--why shouldn't government? While it is probably true that personal corruption eventually affects others, especially the family, the law can only "see" what is tangibly visible and distinguishable from proper acts. When we allow law to enter the domain of judgment over voluntary acts (that do not violate the right of any other) , there is NO WAY TO DISTINGUISH (in law) those acts from other voluntary acts without giving government the dangerous and arbitrary powers of specifying which are "approved" or "disapproved" actions. That kind of power can work against good morals as well--especially when immoral people become a majority, or at least rise to positions of power.

I wish to again emphasize the extreme danger here: In order to vest in a ruling body the POWER to declare certain voluntary acts illegal when no victim is clearly distinguishable, when no direct harm or damage (to fundamental rights) is claimed by any individual, one has to allow that ruling body, presumably elected by the majority of citizens, the power to JUDGE ALL VALUES, and to attack those out of favor with "public policy" edicts. Christians, who are the most frequent champions of such government power, should realize that vesting such a power in the majority allows for the possibility that other persons opposing Christian moral values may someday gain the majority and use that same power to declare Christian values illegal or against "public policy." That may happen sooner than we think.

Before you dismiss this presumption out of hand, think carefully whether we, even today, possess such a majority. I personally don't believe we have such a majority. Even if we did,

we should never take upon ourselves majority rule powers which we would be unwilling to allow others to equally exercise, should they become the majority.

This way all are protected. Most active Christians have become concerned because Christian values and prayers have been outlawed from public schools. But they forget, that the real evil is that these are not "our" schools--they are government schools, which take everyone's tax money (which is wrong) and thus any values promulgated will always be at the expense of others left out or undermined. The solution is not for one majority to force their values upon anyone else, but to let each faction support the kind of schooling values they want. Let all schools, public and private be funded only by user fees--then everyone is free to pay for the education values they want. Then no one can complain that his personal values are not represented by his own money. As you can see, law can be either good or evil. It has no virtue in and of itself. Let us wisely consider and limit its potential use by evil men.

The Bob Jones University controversy is a case in point--a perfect example of how the government is beginning to declare certain religious tenets in violation of the beliefs of the majority. The US Government specifically singled Bob Jones out for attack because it had a policy which the government believed would not find wide support from other churches and schools. Each student attending the university signed a contract agreeing that they would not participate in interracial dating as a condition of their attendance. Whether you agree with the religious tenets such agreements were based upon is irrelevant. What is relevant is that this was an example of a miniature covenant society which chose, by UNANIMOUS CONSENT, to enforce a different standard of conduct than the world around them. There was no harm to any person, not even to the minorities that attended. No minority brought suit against the school since they were all there by prior agreement with the policy. Those that didn't like the policy simply went elsewhere for an education. They recognized no "right" to be educated at Bob Jones. The US Treasury Department (IRS) attacked its tax exempt status, claiming its racial policies were a violation of national "public policy." Most other Christian faiths were wise enough to support Bob Jones, knowing that if the government won its case, "public policy" hostility could easily spread to encompass "fundamentalist" Christians, then mainline Christians, and traditional Jews. The government won its case, and now the evil precedent is strengthened...ready to strike again at the next denomination that opposes the "public will."

USING STRONG DETERRENTS FOR EVIL BEHAVIOR: How, then, does a society of partially righteous people protect themselves from the slow and pervasive evils of consenting immoral acts? Part of the answer is to allow consenting evils, but to vigorous prosecute the participants when they cross that line where they begin to visibly and harmfully affect others. This involves the use of harsh punishments as a deterrent. Since people realize that their faculties are slowed and impaired by the use of alcohol and marijuana, and that the risk is high of making mistakes that could injure others while under the influence, these persons would be most reluctant to use those substances, in the presence of heavy potential penalties. I'm not referring to the token slap on the wrist such as drunk drivers presently receive. I would support very serious consequences, such as treble damages for property damage, and loss of driving privileges as long as the victim was permanently impaired--which could be for life! I would even evoke the death penalty for multiple offenders involving the death of another. This would act as a much more effective deterrent to the harmful results of consenting evil actions than the present costly and ineffective prohibition on sales.

PRIOR RESTRAINT. I am opposed to giving prohibition powers of prior restraint to the untrustworthy and amoral state. Prior restraint is only appropriate when IMMINENT threat to life or property is present. Under this doctrine, a driver of a vehicle could still be stopped and arrested for driving "under the influence" of either alcohol or drugs, since his lack of coherence constitutes an imminent threat to life and property. Imminent means it could happen at any time--a clear and present danger.

MORAL LEADERSHIP ENCOURAGED; Another part of the answer comes from understanding the proper role of leaders in a principled, constitutional system. In brief, while government is prohibited from enjoining voluntary acts, good or evil, leaders are not prohibition from leading and guiding their constituency away from evil. There is no principle of good government that mandates that government leaders cannot pray in public, sermonize, or in any other way lead--as long as no coercion or public tax funds are used to directly subsidize such beliefs (other than the leader's own salary). Leaders are hired to lead (within the bounds of constitutional limits)--not to poll the constituents on each issue. If the people don't like that brand of leadership, they vote for someone else or use the impeachment process for removal in the case of severe violations of law or abuse of power. But while in office, the leader must be free to speak his will. Only a leader's actions on behalf of government power are limited.

COVENANT SOCIETIES: The most effective answer to the question of isolating consenting evils comes from the establishment of COVENANT SOCIETIES. This document of principles provides for the establishment of mini-sovereign states, called "covenant societies" which effectively allows for people of strict and uniform beliefs to join together, by prior unanimous agreement, in the enforcement of higher laws than the national government could enforce--consenting moral views, if you will.

This then, is the proper way for the various religious denominations to have the high moral societies they wish, and it does not require that others be coerced to believe and live as we may wish. The reason these covenant societies are justified in legislating personal morals is that such societies are formed by initial UNANIMOUS consent. Since ALL agree to abide by the higher moral restrictions, and the associated penalties, they can be rightfully enforced. The right to form covenant societies is merely an extension of the right to contract.

However, by the nature of the diversity of people and belief on the NATIONAL level, the initial unanimous citizen compact of the nation (the Constitution) must be broad enough to encompass all non-coercive beliefs, allowing competition and freedom to determine which values will prosper. That is why these principles do not attempt to define any particular faith or statement of belief, other than to provide a non-coercive, platform of universal laws and rights which allows for all men to pursue religious freedom. This is the same standard the founders of the US Constitution followed. While most were devoutly religious, they did not see the need to force God down the throat of non believers. So, while God is not mentioned in the Constitution, they still attempted to give the people the Godly form of the universal law of liberty.

This way all good men possessing diverse beliefs can unanimously agree and rely upon these principles for a peaceful existence, each having the level of protection from evil that he desires, and all being protected from compulsion and aggression by others, both foreign and domestic.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT #3: OWNERSHIP

TO OWN, DISPOSE OF, AND CONTROL ALL PROPERTY AND ASSETS WHICH ARE EARNED BY THE HONEST FULFILLMENT OF VOLUNTARY CONTRACTS, RECEIVED AS A GIFT, INHERITED, OR EARNED IN PROPORTION TO THE APPLICATION OF ONE'S LABOR TO UNOWNED PROPERTY.

The above stated right is generally regarded in the classical sense as the right of PROPERTY. I have chosen to designate it with the term ownership since property in the modern sense usually connotes land, which is an essential but only partial form of ownership.

It is of some interest that, in man, there is only a partial hostility toward ownership. The basic nature of man manifests a tendency to want to keep the product of his labor. Our labor in this insecure world is sufficiently laborious to preclude any casual disregard for work. It is therefore only natural that man does not wish to labor in vain. The concept of wanting to retain the value of the product of labor seems to be innate with man as long as the effort is difficult. In fact, the larger the price in effort and risk, the more dear becomes one's sense of ownership.

So everyone loves the concept of ownership--for himself. It is YOUR ownership that is up for grabs--at least among unenlightened men. Men and women who have become wise in an understanding of the "golden rule" do not seem to manifest this type of selfish resentment. They understand that hostility toward another's ownership will ultimately undermine their own. Once again, let's take a closer look at why socialism is hostile to ownership.

SOCIALISM AND OWNERSHIP:

The politics of envy as practiced in every dispensation of time (by collectivist intellectuals) is to accentuate the inequality of ownership of man; obscure the relationship between ownership, effort and true worth; and hype the rhetoric of exploitation. For the socialists, there are always sufficient examples in the free world of legal, but amoral, exploitation to fuel the fires of class resentment (although the most notable examples usually occur under government protected monopolies or in the presence of other official intervention inhibiting the expansion mechanism of the free market--such as early feudalism).

Socialism gains most of its adherents with the initial attraction and claim that it provides a "more just" distribution of the products of "society"--albeit by coercion rather than by voluntary mechanisms. Upon close inspection however, it can be shown that socialism is always a violator of justice, when viewed in the context of universal and fundamental rights.

The illusion whereby socialism successfully blames freedom for all the ills of society works like this: In the exercise of economic freedoms, man is often tempted to be lazy, speculate, gamble, and/or extend himself beyond his real capabilities. The natural consequences of such errors of judgment, ignorance and greed lead to occasional economic problems, often engulfing innocent investors. These problems are not cyclical, as many economic texts ignorantly assert. They occur in direct proportion to the enlightenment, morality, and character of the free populace. This is to say that a highly experienced, enlightened and moral society, working with the maximum incentives of freedom, and listening to the warnings of conscience, would experience few, if any, economic reversals short of nature's unpredictable intervention.

On the other hand, people UNschooled in these essential principles of liberty look to the highest immediate power for relief of their problems which results in controls and regulations which, in turn, distort the economy. With each distortion of the natural incentives of man to work and produce, some dislocation of employment and entrepreneurship occurs. The economic hardship of unemployment, if sufficiently widespread, induces special interest groups to call for direct government welfare compensation which in turn causes further distortions in the economy as the productive class is burdened with more taxes. These increased taxes, coercively derived, to pay for such wealth transfers are, in essence, a violation of ownership rights, and a "tax" on a producer's existence. It is like an employer having to hire other people who do no work.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION AND DEPRESSIONS: Here is where socialism produces injustices in the name of justice. Much of the original dislocation and slowdown of economic growth came first from government induced but false economic growth (usually through fiat money or credit expansion.) Then, due either to inflationary fears or outright conspiracy to foreclose on speculative property, the government cuts back on phony monetary expansion and adds more regulations and controls. Depression comes and the "free market" is to blame. It is, partially, for being stupid enough to go along with government "easy money and credit". In any case, the socialist points to every new unemployed person as if he were the product of the failures of the free market, rather than from the intervention of government. And, in reality, it looks like that is true. Every unemployed person can look to an individual employer who severed his job ties. Thus, in the act of championing the cause of the "unemployed" and calling for welfare transfer payments, which increases taxes (or inflation), the socialist induces greater unemployment, which in turn is made to appear the failure of the free market. These mechanisms are so subtle, diverse, and hidden that only the most well-trained Austrian (free market) Economists can trace them effectively. The common person becomes a sucker for every false economic excuse thrown before him.

AFFECTS ON MARGINAL BUSINESSES: In reality, at any given time in a free economy, there are thousands of marginal businesses in existence at the periphery of the job market. It is upon these new, or old marginal businesses that new taxes and regulations impact most. Most of these new business endeavors also happen to be the prime source of new jobs. But their failure to stay alive is complex, and never obviously attributable to a few dollars more in taxes or a few more regulations. Government deficit spending may deny him loans at reasonable interest rates. Inflation may eat away at profits which he cannot tolerate amid more efficient competition. Much of the time, it is simply the discouragement of all the paper work necessary to stay in business, acting as an unpaid government tax collector for the IRS, or being an unwilling benefit provider for the unemployed, that makes good people quit or retire early.

But for whatever reason, each portion of government intervention takes its toll upon growth, and provides MORE VICTIMS than BENEFICIARIES, of welfare and transfer payments. The ratio of jobs destroyed to jobs provided by government is always a negative relationship, in the range of at least 1.2 to 1, and as high as 3 to 1 depending upon the bureaucratic overload and the disincentives to production as viewed by the employers.

It is in this concept of higher net victims than beneficiaries that we disprove the so-called "justice" of socialism. The ultimate proof that this phenomena of higher victims to beneficiaries is not transitory, but an inherent propensity of socialism, is found in the utter lack of historical success of any fully socialized economy and the disastrous correlation between the degree of socialism in any mixed economy and its economic problems. Even from the highly touted pragmatic view of end results, we can also demonstrate that socialism is, in fact, incapable of sustaining net production in society, and that it ALWAYS degenerates into a net consuming society. There are virtually no historical examples, either past or present, of fully developed socialist societies that are net producers (the ability to produce net growth with no further indebtedness).

There is no free market government today, and virtually all governments are increasing their debt load each year. Even those partially socialized nations such as the United States, Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong are feeding upon the high net production of the remaining private section, which IN SPITE OF the negative effects of socialist taxation and regulation, continues to show an overall net production. But the government sector in each nation continues to increase indebtedness. The demand for increased benefits never diminishes voluntarily Worst of all, in all mixed-socialist economies, the governments are all heading inexorably toward bankruptcy. Some have been able to slow the march into debt but once heavily socialized, no one has been able to reverse it. Insofar as governments continue to apply more controls and government spending, rather than less, couple with increased welfare, and social benefits, the resulting economic deterioration is inevitable.

Only the presence of a continual flow of western capital from net producing nations keeps the other socialist nations under the appearance of viability. What happens when the mixed economies like the United States reach the point where it becomes a net consumer and can no longer bail itself out? Interestingly enough countries don't collapse economically--the people (when the borders are sealed) just keep on working at a subsistence level. What always happens, eventually, is war and destruction--that's the irrevocable lesson of history.

THE LEGAL PRETENSES OF COLLECTIVISM:

The ability of the socialist to obscure the violation of ownership rights is enhanced by the use of government to do the violating. If a neighbor were to come to my house and demand, at the point of a gun, a monthly sum of money for his personal welfare and support, he would be viewed as an extortioner and thief. When he and the majority of other benefit-hungry people go to the legislature to accomplish the same thing by the rule of law, suddenly we who resist such expropriation of lawful ownership are viewed as criminals.

In like manner, modern governments rarely admit to open expropriation of property. They simply obscure the theft by calling it taxation in support of our "duty" as citizens. In reality, the official view of property rights is that they are secure to the individual only insofar as they do not conflict with the "public good." In other words, property rights become subordinated to public needs, which are INFINITE. Such public "needs" become arbitrary when "public" ceases to be defined as ALL the people, and comes to be viewed as satisfaction of some minority need, as if that minority represented all of us in that same "potential" situation.

Here again is another fallacious case of so-called "shared rights." The government claims both private and public sectors have a "compelling interest" in these property rights. But the only pertinent question is who has the ULTIMATE INTEREST. I don't care who has a passive interest in my affairs, I only want to know who has the ULTIMATE authority if there is a conflict in that interest. If the state has the ultimate authority, then I possess no rights--only a PRIVILEGE granted me by the government, as long as it doesn't need what I am using.

EMINENT DOMAIN: I am so concerned about the subtle and slow erosion of ownership rights, that after long and careful deliberations, I have concluded that legitimate ownership to property and assets must be held as near to absolutely inviolate from forced confiscation as possible. The concept of "eminent domain" is very dangerous, and almost presupposes that government has the highest, or most "eminent" claim on property. This must not be allowed. At best, the government can be given very limited and specific powers of taking, but never general powers of taking for the ever-expandable "public good". Now, before you go into a frenzy of questions about how we could possibly have such orderly roads and bridges without the power to 'TAKE' property by force, albeit with compensation, let me state the basic danger.

What difference is there in FACT (not degree) between the full subordination of private property to "public needs", and a little bit of taking? There is none, really, except the voluntary willingness of government powers to be "reasonable"--which is dangerous to rely upon.

There is simply no way to distinguish, in law, the progression from a little bit of "taking" for "reasonable" purposes and a lot of taking of property for unreasonable purposes. As long as government possesses ultimate authority to declare some taking by eminent domain as "reasonable", there are no ultimate rights reserved to the owners of property. It is just that simple. The 1984 Supreme Court decision upholding the Hawaii statutes providing for the forced transfer of private land holdings to other PRIVATE owners for the "public good" is an ample demonstration of this inevitable progression from selective use of "eminent domain" to total eventual confiscation.

Do not be dissuaded from the danger inherent in this situation by some small, historical view that local leaders have heretofore been reasonable. That isn't the point. First, the leaders legally do not have to be reasonable at all, as long as they at least declare that what they do is in the "best interest" of the public. Almost anything can be justified by the "public interest" or "reasonable" standard if the judicial system becomes packed by political "yes-men." Second, even if leaders are fully accountable to the majority of citizens as to their reasonableness, it is not even within the rightful purview of the majority to determine what is the "reasonable" taking of another's property. That is for the owner to decide either by initial unanimous consent to constitutional provisions for taking or in a voluntary form of contractual citizenship where they specifically cede some limited property rights.

Without entering into a necessarily long treatise explaining how an orderly transportation system can be derived through a system of inviolate property rights, I would encourage you to consider that the development of the so-called "order" in which we now live took place not at any single time, in a stroke of a master planner's pen, but one decision at a time, mostly by free choice, as man made a conscious attempt to harmonize what went before with the future. For that matter, there is still a lot of order to be worked out. Though the free market always takes longer than the power of arbitrary government edicts, the results are always more just.

With all that said, I am fully aware that there are not a few greedy people that would see that their property is the key piece necessary to finish a long highway project--perhaps one that passes through a narrow canyon, where no other route is possible--who would set the price astronomical high sufficient either to deny the viability of the project or even worse to have their price acceded to and set off simultaneously a wave of hatred all property rights, or even a contagious fever of greed on the part of others hoping to do the same in the future. One solution is to make some carefully controlled concessions to public taking with compensation in the citizen covenant, whereby all signers agree to yield property rights in exchange for market value compensation for a very specific list of things (such as major transportation and utility corridors, as narrowly defined as practicable, with the burden of proof upon the government to demonstrate that they have selected the route with the least infringement upon existing developed property).

I would never suggest any broad "public purpose" language as a compromise. Property rights are simple too critical to liberty. This same type of restricted taking of property with compensation could be written into a constitution, but it would be a more dangerous compromise since once you crack open the door of government takings, it is nearly impossible to restrain it from constant erosion. Certainly, placing it in a constitutional framework with stiff amendment requirements (at least 2/3 majority), rather and in ordinary statutory law will help hold the line.

While we, the living, have trouble looking at what exists and envisioning how it could be reproduced without the coercion of property rights, it can be done, with only few exceptions--where the terrain is so unique, and where it leads to few or no alternative transportation and utility route, or where critical water rights, are concerned. The secret of resolving much of the current planning problems involving critical resources is found partially in the necessity of all citizens and officials to know IN ADVANCE the strict limits of public takings of property, and the full nature of compensation required. Thus all levels of government are forced to plan further ahead and choose with greater foresight optimum areas for critical public works and other areas for alternative development when the costs or the obstacles of an ideal area are too high.

In roads for example, I would limit the power of taking to only major highways. These are the only ones where fast speeds and zig-zags around property holdouts would be very difficult to implement efficiently without the power of taking with compensation. In the case of smaller, slower roads, those who won't ever sell rarely hold up progress since there are very few instances where only a single route is possible, or when the road can't wait to go through later on after the person holding out passes away or moves on. Even in such cases, if the cause is just, do not forget the power of persuasion generated by wide public support for community projects that do not involve wrongful taxing authority. Nothing adds insult to eminent domain injury more than having to pay through increased taxes and bonding for the taking of your own land.

WATER RIGHTS: In the delicate area of water rights, I feel it is a general necessity to make water rights highly divisible and flexible so as to accommodate the maximum use of critical water supplies to the most users that increasing technology can apply them to. This is particularly applicable to dry locations where water is a scare resource. But I feel it important to restrict these public controls of water rights to the very minimum required to deal with drinking and crop irrigation functions.

First, when a river crosses numerous different property boundaries, the water rights of the flow at any given time should be equally distributed among the properties along the entire length of the river combined with some factor involving the amount of agricultural land physically connected to the river, out to a specified limit. When such a rule is applied uniformly and equally to all adjacent river owners, they are then free to sell unused portions of their water rights to other users not directly connected to the river. Distant cities would either have to own some river property or negotiate with river property owners to secure water from such a source.

Second, when a water source does not exit a property, except on rare overflow conditions, the water rights should be not subject to any public allocation. Natural lakes should also be in the full control of the property owners without public say. However, man-made lakes should be subject to approval of the structural elements of the dam in order to protect the rights to life and property of the landholders downstream of such a dam. In any case, no government body overseeing a 'public safety' issue such as this should have the right to prevail in a dispute, when all of the other owners downstream (whose rights would be affected by a breakage) agree in writing to allow the dam above them. This is based on the universal principle that people should always have the right to accept agreed upon risks without government interference.

Third, fish and wildlife rights should be limited in their ability to impinge upon property rights. A case can be made for the public right to maintain "free passage" for fish and other aquatic wildlife up and down a river or lake to which their were native. But their should be no "free passage" allowed for members of the public who wish to hunt or fish. This would allow excessive access of the public to private property and would make it nearly impossible for an owner to secure his property against unwanted intrusion. Thus the public would be free to fish and hunt by contractual agreement or by the public purchase of access (if done with an appropriate use fee and no general tax funds). Naturally, since barriers would not be allowed to be erected that prohibited fish movement (dams without fish ladders, for example), the public would still have fishing privileges, though more limited than present.

WELL WATER: Well water, where it was drawn from a water table that can be demonstrated to affect other well water users, would have to be controlled by either a contractual association of well users or a representative body of such users. It is never proper for a broad based public regulatory body to regulate something that can be controlled by a legal association of the property owners directly affected. I understand that no one is perfectly able to determine the limits of an underlying water table, but certainly there are situations where it could be determined without a reasonable doubt that a certain well or well would not have adverse affect beyond a certain general range. For example, a ranch that occupies an entire valley with its own aquifer table should not be subject to state or county well permits. For a ranch the size of the King ranch in Texas (hundreds of miles square) an unlimited well access would be appropriate, we may presume within 25 miles of its boundaries. This would generally ensure that other adjacent owners would not be adversely affected by the unlimited water use within the larger ranch's core area. Border areas would be subject to regulation as to number of wells and amounts pumped. The burden of proof in taking regulatory control of well use should be on the agency--not on the well user to prove he isn't affecting someone else.

TAKINGS BY CONTROL and REGULATION NOT ALLOWED: Note carefully the completeness of the ownership statement in the statement of property rights and principles. It is not enough to have title alone. One must have the control of the property and the right to dispose of it. Many land-use laws today have violated the value of property by allowing someone to maintain title and pay the taxes but deny the owner the right to build on it, farm it, mine it, or sell it. Even those land-use laws that allow such uses still require prior approval, with the land-use authority holding the ultimate authority. Not infrequently such ultimate authority results in outright denial of use--the same as if the property had been taken--only THE OWNER STILL PAYS THE TAXES. Obviously, ownership is a liability under those conditions, not an asset. Such actions are totally prohibited by the foregoing statement of rights except where the use of property would infringe on another's right. For example, burning noxious or hazardous materials on one's own property could be a direct violation of another's property rights if harmful fumes were to travel across property lines and cause illness or air pollution. The same would apply to toxic chemical or fertilizer leakage into a stream that passes through other's property or into the water table.

NO SUCH THINGS AS "VISUAL RIGHTS". On the other hand, unsightly visual uses of construction on property would not be a violation of another's rights, since no one can possess a right to a particular view, whether scenic or otherwise. The reason is simple. A view can be seen by numerous separate property owners at once. Each person cannot possess the same rights to that view simultaneously with the others. There is no way that the law can arbitrate between differences of opinion on the relative merits of a shack, for example, on someone's property. A shack to one person may be another's "historical relic."

Furthermore, even if all other surrounding owners could agree on the merits of a view, to be given the power to control the view, would require the power to control the physical elements constituting that view--meaning the private property itself. That would give every property owner control rights to every other property around him, within view, which would be an impossible situation of interminable conflict.

That is precisely why, in the relatively new area of law dealing with protecting scenic areas, no rights are really afforded either to the surrounding property owners or the public. All effective powers go to the arbitrary, appointed commissions (panels of laymen and "experts") who make the final decisions. Do not be fooled by the environmentalist promotion that the "public" controls the view under scenic protection laws. The "public" may have input to the authorities, but only the ultimate authority has any power. Such a commission or panel has full power to totally disregard the public input, which is never uniform anyway. For purposes of political justification, however, these panels can always find or induce someone to provide "public input" which matches whatever outcome the commission wants to enforce.

There are no scenic rights except to he who owns the property on which the scene exists. To state otherwise would give every traveler conflicting rights with every other traveler over every piece of land deemed too pretty for private ownership.

The ultimate result of the absolute protection of property rights is that new property buyers would make their purchases with the full realization that whatever view surrounds them can change, and that they cannot control that change without either outright purchase or restrictive covenants signed beforehand by all area property owners. The restrictive covenant is nothing less than a partial form of a covenant society, covering little more than aesthetic aspects of property rights.

In the final analysis, remember that without ownership rights, few other rights exist. How can one act with any autonomy if he does not own or control the property upon which such action rests? How can one contract if nothing is owned? Without ownership there is no way of establishing or maintaining the concept of just possession. Without a sense of possession, men lose the incentive to work.

COROLLARY RIGHTS to FREEDOM OF ACTION that are dependent upon property rights:

INTRODUCTION: There are many corollary rights relating to the freedom to act, which are limited to participation in property rights. Throughout the following discussion of corollary rights, you will note the use of the word "contractual property." This simply refers to property which, by either verbal or written contract or permission, you have use or control.

Under these principles, "public" property would refer to the property owned by the association of all the citizens who have formed a certain government entity, whether city, county, state, or nation. Each level of government can, like any other association, purchase and hold property as long as it is done without coercion, and only by the use of the funds of the covenant members themselves.

Under this contractual concept, public property is not free, nor is it able to be used in an uncontrolled manner. Since it is governed like an association, there are rules and by-laws which establish some type of representative majority rule. That body, in accordance with the bylaws, can set rules pertaining to the use of that property, including limits to any of the following rights, which are always dependent upon property use rights.

• To BE FREE FROM BEING ACTED UPON or involuntarily influenced, in a harmful manner, when on one's own or contractual property and not directly and harmfully affecting the rights of others.

This conditional right, which is the reciprocal expression of the freedom to ACT--declares one's freedom from being ACTED UPON when not interfering with others. In this fundamental right is found the essential justification for all laws prohibiting aggression and compulsion by either individuals or government when one is acting within his own sovereign area of ownership or control, and other's rights are not infringed.

It is carefully worded so as to preclude the false interpretation which would lead one to believe he has the "right" to make all other human beings disappear from the face of the earth "because they are influencing me." Such influence must be harmful, and against your rights (not will or desires alone) while on your own, or contractual property.

In the case of public property, one does not have all the same rights that may be possessed on one's own private property. When on any contractual property (including public property or in any activity governed by the rules of an association or contract) one has only as many rights as have been contracted for, or retained while under that temporary jurisdiction.

For example, under a proper governmental association, public roads could exist as long as they were developed by voluntary contractual principles (using user fees and specific road taxes). Those paying the appropriate individual toll or yearly fee, to use the roads, would be considered contractual owners, and would have the right to not be involuntarily and harmfully influenced from such a vantage point, as long as the contract for participation in the public system did not preclude such rights.

Here is how this would work in a few specific areas: This principle could prohibit the showing of outdoor drive-in movies where persons, not contracting to view the show, could accidentally view material that would be directly harmful to them, or their children. An objection could be lodged against a theater showing sexually explicit material since it can be demonstrated to be harmful to the proper moral development of children, and even harmful to adults who wish to maintain a mind free from corrupting thoughts or memories. Even if it could not be "proven" to be harmful, property rights include the protection to be free from acted upon adversely by other's actions. Certain sexually explicit material is acting adversely upon those who do not wish to view it. This is especially an appropriate objection when the offender can easily avoid or ameliorate the unwanted intrusion.

JUDGMENT ON CERTAIN MORAL CONFLICTS: It is not my intent to delve here into the difficulties of determining in law what constitutes "explicitly harmful sexual material." As in this case, there are aspects of prosecution such as the determination of "harm" and "intent" which must remain in the realm of judgment, since they cannot be explicitly defined in words alone. It is true that such concepts can be guided by legal criteria, but the ultimate judgment will probably always remain in human hands, imperfect as they are. That is why we still have to have judges in law, though we try to avoid giving them wide discretion. If sexually explicit material could not be legally shown to be harmful, those objecting, or who still believe it harmful even in the absence of legal proof, would have to seek the protective exclusion found only in a smaller covenant society, were high levels of protection from voluntary influence can be had by mutual agreement

Liberty can best be preserved in these areas requiring human judgment if the specific determination of what is harmful influence is made at the local level, by an elected judge, and where those judgments are not given any judicial weight outside the local jurisdiction, and where private viewing of such materials is not infringed. This allows a majority in a local community, through the exercise of their franchise (voting for a judge), to indirectly influence a portion of the rule of law (the determination of "harm"), without being subjected to uniform federal or state interpretations, other than general constitutional restraints on the protection of private actions.

This is not to say that LOCAL majorities should be given unlimited license to make any law, as if it possessed some virtue by being only local in scope. As I expressed earlier, there are many types of law which are violations of fundamental rights whether they occur at the local or national level. Here we are referring to those areas of law (such as judgments on "harm") which are valid exercises of majoritarian law, and recognize that certain aspects of those laws cannot be totally defined by words, thereby necessitating human judgment by local courts of law.

As long as the majority and minority opinions do not become excessively divergent, communities do tend to coexist in peace without falling back on the more exclusive covenant societies. The latter are more protective of uniform beliefs but are more difficult to form since they require initial unanimous consent.

Certain minorities will "vote with their feet" (that is, move away) if they have serious disagreements with the standards constituting what is harmful, and if they are unsuccessful in gaining the assent of the courts selected by the majority. Thus, the ultimate protection of liberty is gained by the freedom to set up a unanimous covenant society for the absolute protection of certain non-compulsive moral values not held by the society at large.

This concept provides the least conflict between different moral values since each major group representing different moral values would tend to seek their own local autonomy rather than compel others to meet their own particular standards. When conflict is reduced and free competition is encouraged, the several groups are more inclined to cooperate in areas of common concern--if a national structure exists that allows for fair and proportional representation on national issues.

The foregoing discussion of control over an outdoor theater is not a contradiction with the discussion on scenic "rights", wherein I concluded that no one can "own a scene" not on his own property. In the "scenic pollution" conflict of a neighbor building a shack, no rights are violated since there is no right to a view, nor was there any direct damage to the person himself, moral or otherwise. Now, there are those who claim he has been directly damaged by lower property values. But the so-called "damage to property values" argument is fallacious since there is no right to a certain value of a property. Values are matters of opinion, not fact. They are determined by the free negotiations between other prospective buyers and the owner. The potential buyer is a third party, may or may not see it as a detraction of value to this or other neighboring properties for sale. And it cannot meet the test of being both direct and harmful to any victim, even the prospective buyer since the third party buyer doesn't own the shack or the property next door. If he doesn't like it, he can buy property elsewhere, or lower his bid to reflect his poor assessment.

There is no way to determine fixed property values in law--therefore they are not adjudicable. However, in the case of the drive-in theater, the damage is direct since sexually explicit material can adversely and directly affect the development of a child, and even the emotional stability of some adults. If the offending shack had obscene words painted on it, one might have cause to declare it directly harmful, but not the shack itself, since the relative beauty or lack thereof of a building cannot be shown to be adversely damaging to the neighbor's mind.

In a similar manner, billboards can be regulated--but not on the normal basis that they are "ugly". Even if that were the case, nothing can be regulated because of beauty--as subject far too subjective for public judgment. But when billboards can be seen and read beyond property boundaries they touch upon the right of others not to be unduly or adversely influenced or acted upon on their own or contractual property. So morally offensive materials would be subject to regulation. Size or placement would only be an issue of traffic safety. Potential distraction of certain types of lighting, or wild movements could be regulated if an adverse threat to contractual obligations of the roadway could be proven.

The laws defending fundamental rights should be uniform throughout the nation, being set by the constitution, but individual localities are free to make more explicit or restrictive standards in the area of non-coercive values if done by initial unanimous consent of all citizens in the local community. Lacking unanimous consent, legislation by lawmakers and judgment by the courts is limited to defining and restricting harmful acts to individual and family rights. We must remember that judgment, in the absence of any unanimous local citizen agreement, is strictly limited to protecting fundamental and contractual rights, determining whether direct harm or intent to harm has occurred, and providing just consequences for the guilty and restitution to the victims.

This potential conflict between liberty and harmful influence upon others is one of the difficult areas in law to properly resolve. By deferring toward liberty when in doubt, and only exercising legal judgment where harm is clear, we hopefully avoid any real substantive conflicts in an open, majority ruled community. What moral value conflicts still remain are then best resolved by smaller subdivisions of the community being formed, under the unanimous consent provisions of the law, to clearly prohibit undesired conduct within areas under the new subdivision's jurisdiction.

THE RIGHT NOT TO BE ACTED UPON (continued):

SELF RESPONSIBILITY FOR RISK

• To be solely RESPONSIBLE for one's own health, life, education and safety. It is, therefore, not the right or duty of other men, whether by individual or government force, to coerce men to act in any way they may deem BENEFICIAL for another's welfare, when failure or refusal to so act will not directly or harmfully affect others' rights outside covenant and contractual relationships.

In this principle we find one of the simple "self-evident" truths about life. Almost everyone would agree that we should all be free to accept responsibility for our actions. /But there are many well-meaning individuals who have taken it upon themselves to act as the almighty protectors of mankind. In this, I am not referring to those who desire to protect people from the compulsion and aggression of others, but those who arrogate to themselves the power to protect people from themselves--using the coercive power of government.

They busy themselves in attempts to keep people from doing things which they may deem unwise and foolish--which is commendable, but only in the voluntary sector. However, when voluntary awareness programs fail, or a major accident happens, they often go to government crying for a new law mandating that people be forced to do something that presumably would ensure such an accident never happens again.

Worse yet, when government agencies hire a full time employee as a fire Marshall or safety officer, for example, each fire or accident in the community becomes a reflection on his job performance. Thus the nature of the responsibility induces the officer to go before elected officials and request additional codes and regulations to control what he feels are unsafe private actions. Freedom becomes the code enforcer's "enemy" and he, unknowingly, becomes freedoms worst enemy.

Laws such as motorcycle helmet requirements, mandatory seat belt use, and building codes are all violations of this principle. Conservatives have a most difficult time seeing the evil in these laws, simply because they involve safety habits which most of us do voluntarily anyway. Besides, they appear so "beneficial."

We tend to confuse one fundamental aspect of law when we support health and safety legislation that we view as beneficial. We confuse our feelings of support for the beneficial action being mandated, with the fact that it is IMPROPER TO MANDATE such actions BY LAW.

People say, "I wear seat belts, and I think everyone should," which may be true. But there is a distinct and very real difference between saying everyone SHOULD versus MUST, UNDER PENALTY OF LAW. We fail to remember that the artificial penalties for transgressing a law inflicts pain and suffering and very real damage, in the form of fines or even potential imprisonment if one resists on principle.

Thus, we must never use law as a means of coercing people to do things that we simply feel are beneficial for them. Once we enter that arena, where we give government the power to determine what is BENEFICIAL for people, we have opened the floodgates for virtual total control of our lives--all in the name of health, life, safety and good judgment--all violations of the fundamental right to be responsible for our own safety.

Remember that being responsible for our own safety means the requirement of accepting the CONSEQUENCES of one's own poor judgment, and as a society of having the courage to see people's bad judgment hurt them without rushing to the legislature to stop personal freedom to fail. That means, frankly, that mistakes will occur and that it is our own responsibility to accept those consequences. The presence of occasional consequences is what causes most people to learn by their errors. Judgment increases and people become more wise. The more that government intrudes to "ensure" private safety, the more non-thinking people depend on that supervision, and the poorer their judgments become. Do not take lightly this concept of deteriorating personal judgment in the face of excess codling. It is similar to the unarrestable evil that comes upon society as it shield's people's bad judgment in health and financial matters with welfare and disability payments.

In all of this, I am not denying the legitimate role of government in restricting those private actions which damage other people's rights. That is the proper role of government. But, as a general rule, I prefer deterrence for private bad judgment through letting people suffer the consequences without a government safety net, or "a priori" restraint upon liberty. Additionally, the same restrictions upon government's intrusion upon family risks apply here as well in order to keep a clear demarcation between family sovereignty and government delegated powers protecting fundamental rights. Some suffer of wives and children must be tolerated in society to shield liberty as a whole from the "ought-a-be-a-law" crowd who would eventually attempt to "license" parents according to some "pristine" sociological model.

My final point on this right is to clarify the language which says that it is not the right or duty of men to coerce others to do what they deem beneficial WHEN REFUSAL OR FAILURE TO DO SO WILL NOT HARM OTHERS OUTSIDE OF COVENANT AND CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIPS.

The emphasized wording provides the essential test that restricts a group of citizens, even if in a majority, from imposing their will upon others. Simply put, if refusal to do the recommended or mandated action does not directly and harmfully affect members of that majority, they have no right to mandate such action.

Fluoridation of water supplies provides an ideal example. In this case, if I fail to fluoridate my teeth, and I get additional cavities, this in no way harms another or affects the rights of any other person. Since failure to fluoridate does not directly affect other members of the majority, the majority has no right to legislate its view of what is beneficial for my water supply. This is properly done under voluntary contract rights in a association of private water users, or by unanimous consent of public system users.

Do not be tempted to rely on the flawed argument that government welfare services are increased as people neglect to take care of themselves. Because government illegally improperly attempts to use tax money to give health care to certain persons, in no way gives government the power to start regulating everyone. A one-sided contract, however well intentioned is not binding, nor gives that person control over another. It's like a person who, on his own volition, starts paying for your health insurance, and then tries to control everything you do because he is paying for something which you never solicited! In a court of law, you could be free to accept his largess for as long as you wanted and he would still never have any power to control you--simply because it is a one-side offer.

To carry the benefit argument to further extremes, giving government the power to mandate "beneficial" conduct would also allow government to mandate that everyone drink three glasses of milk a day--simply because it may be deemed beneficial. Again, government can only defend against the infringement of rights, it cannot mandate positive benefits or mandate beneficial actions.

Motorcycle helmet laws fall into this same category. Failure to use a helmet only direct affects the user, and thus the majority has no right to mandate its use. If they did have such a right then safety requirements could be expanded in unlimited ways to include special boots, anti-skid brakes, armored clothing and a host of very expensive additions to an inherently unsafe vehicle.

Safety experts can sometimes get indignant when citizens complain about the costs that must be borne to satisfy their demands. "How can one put a PRICE on safety?" they retort. Actually, the price is irrelevant to the fact that even a "free" mandatory safety item would be a violation of the right to be self-responsible in areas which do not affect others directly. But in another sense the price is relevant in that mandatory safety equipment represents a "taking" of property (money). The bigger the cost, the bigger the violation of the property right. While most safety experts are considerate of costs, they are under no legal obligation to act with such restraint. Reasonableness is only a reflection of their desire to keep people from rising up against this type of benevolent tyranny.

Why not ban motorcycles altogether, as some have suggested? The reason is simple: it is each person's fundamental right to take risks and assume the consequences for his own "unsafe" actions as long as others' rights are not infringed. Using a vehicle recklessly in the presence of other innocent bystanders is infringing on others' rights, but refusal to wear a helmet is not.

This area of legislative action I have just described is the most insidious type of lawmaking because most Americans, especially those who use seat belts, and wear helmets, and build homes properly, see nothing WRONG with the law. They fail to realize that what is PROPER FOR THE VOLUNTARY ARENA is NOT PROPER FOR GOVERNMENT to mandate by law. We are dealing here with mandating "beneficial acts" wholly outside the limits on government power.

For the pragmatists who are always asking, how would we protect ourselves against houses and buildings from collapsing and other effects of poor judgment, simply look back into history. The US capitol building was designed and built by unlicensed architects and builders--the free market. At least four of our US presidents, including George Washington, had no formal education--no credentials. Houses are still being built today without any building codes, and they have no greater incidence of problems. People in Oregon and Maryland (as of 1990) don't get annual safety inspection on their cars, and have no higher incidence of safety-related accidents than states with rigid laws.

Most importantly, when the market is free, and people rely less on government to restrict their liberty to fail, personal judgment increases (through going through the school of "hard knocks") and people become better at seeing competency. When people find themselves in situations where they do not feel competent, experience will eventually induce them to hire an outside expert to check it out, to use good contracts to ensure quality, and to assess liability if errors should occur. Granted there will always be those in society who will fail to exercise caution, fail to hire experts, and fail to get self taught about a subject where they can't afford an expert. But there is little excuse for this slothfulness. Let them pay the consequences, I say. Fortunately,