Can I get some opinions on this? Will the US change to a more libertarian system within its rules, or will it take a complete disaster to turn things around?
My experience is that disasters tend to just make the Fed pull its resources closer to its chest to survive, not loosen up. Disasters are, after all, when rights go out the window - or, as Amitai Etzioni puts it, "out rights are not unlimited, and are defined by the times in which we live." Right. Let's all let terrorists and bureaucrats tell us how much freedom is healthy for us.
Or is there a middle ground? Maybe a partial disaster, maybe the collapse of social security, maybe massive inflation of the fiat dollar (meaning they just print out as much as they like on demand, ergo fiat, like the car)?
I don't think we'll really know until something happens, but how do you all feel about this?
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4 comments:
Nope. It will take a disaster. Just like it takes rock bottom for an alcoholic to seek change.
AJ
What bothers me is that an alcoholic's means are somewhat limited. When there's a crisis, they're ultimately constrained by their morals and means to supply their poison of choice. Yet while some alcoholics may turn to crime to appropriate the funds needed, there's still a moral stigam attatched. With government, there's no moral crime in taking, there's nothing truly stopping the taking, and there's really no visible bottom to the barrel. They can just keep digging deeper until they cause a revolution. I don't think things will go just like that... at least I hope not.
It'll take a disaster, one big enough to crash the USSA system. A financial one seems to be slowly rolling our way right now.
The real question is, after that, will enough people grok the value of liberty for whatever state arises from the ashes to be more freedom respecting? I wish I could say I'm optimistic on that, but I don't think that's the way freedom is going to advance.
People tend to act most "free" when they're most free in fact - I'd probably have to agree, I think a massive crisis would tilt things farther away from the direction of liberty.
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