According to a recent article in the publication Mother Jones, Americans are perfectly fine with socialism in some aspects of life, specifically law enforcement and public safety. This premise, however is inherently flawed as it ignores one basic tenet of government, insofar as the purpose of government was originally intended by the founders of this nation’s constitution.
What is the proper function of government. For some the answer to that question is simple: to protect our basic fundamental rights to life, liberty and property. Hence the obvious need for police, firefighters, the military and the courts. For others the proper role for government is more far reaching to include such matters as needs and wants, including food, shelter, clothing, health-care, etc… For those who embrace the former, there is a genuine belief that the two must and will inevitably conflict. Naturally a government seeking to mandate such needs and wants as food, clothing, shelter and health-care must deprive its citizens of their ability to choose for themselves. Such choices can vary. For some it may be the foolish choice to eat poorly or engae in other risky behavior, for some it could be simply forgoing healthcar or making quality health decisions, regardless of which, such choices are ours to make, in as much as our choices do not interfere with the basic rights of others.
Is it a proper function of a government to control its citizens? Any government enaged in an effort to supply needs and wants is thusly eroding the liberty of its people while also depriving citizens their right to property. Considering it is our labor and energies being expended, it is also our livelihoods and lives which are being restricted, thus assaulting each of our basic fundamental and inalienable rights, and for what, so that a government monopoly with a poor track record of managing the affairs and resources of its people can have yet another opportunity at mismanagement fraud and out right theft?
Link:
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2009/09/socialized-america
