More on Government

Is the government not owning everything you've accumulated, not taking everything you've made, creating wealth? This is actually a philosophical question that Hayek and Von Mises have addressed far better than I can now. I suggest you go to http://mises.org/ for detailed arguments. My argument is that Jefferson and the Founders of this country said in the Declaration of Independence that we have certain inalienable rights, namely life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Do you know that the pursuit of happiness refers to property rights? That's what he meant as far as I've learned.

What you are arguing is that because government allows you to keep what you've worked for, what you've earned--it is the same as government creating that wealth. If so, then Muammar Gaddafi owns Libya and neither we, nor its citizens, have a right to complain. We have to be grateful for whatever government allows us, because government owns and allows everything, we have no basic rights, nothing. Furthermore, since government owns and allows everything, it can take away our livelihoods, and that we should be grateful that we are allowed to even live, since government grants all powers.

The American system, a controversial system when created for sure, says different. All the powers of government come from the people and have to be given by the people to government. Government has no rights, has no powers, can't do anything without the consent of the people through Constitutional amendment. Property rights are a basic human right. So is freedom, so is liberty. Because government in the United States doesn't oppress me and take away what I've built, what I've created, what I've made, is not the same as government creating all those things!