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The Political Lounge |
"If we accept the idea of self-ownership, then certain acts are
readily revealed as moral or immoral. Acts such as rape and murder are
immoral because they violate one's private property rights. Theft of the
physical things that we own, such as cars, jewelry and money, also
violates our ownership rights."
Our Problem is Immorality
Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Most of our nation's great problems, including our economic problems,
have as their root decaying moral values. Whether we have the stomach to
own up to it or not, we have become an immoral people left with little
more than the pretense of morality. You say, "That's a pretty heavy
charge, Williams. You'd better be prepared to back it up with
evidence!" I'll try with a few questions for you to answer.
Do you believe that it is moral and just for one person to be forcibly
used to serve the purposes of another? And, if that person does not
peaceably submit to being so used, do you believe that there should be
the initiation of some kind of force against him? Neither question is
complex and can be answered by either a yes or no. For me the answer is
no to both questions but I bet that your average college professor,
politician or minister would not give a simple yes or no response. They
would be evasive and probably say that it all depends.
In thinking about questions of morality, my initial premise is that I am
my private property and you are your private property. That's simple.
What's complex is what percentage of me belongs to someone else. If we
accept the idea of self-ownership, then certain acts are readily revealed
as moral or immoral. Acts such as rape and murder are immoral because
they violate one's private property rights. Theft of the physical things
that we own, such as cars, jewelry and money, also violates our ownership
rights.
The reason why your college professor, politician or minister cannot give
a simple yes or no answer to the question of whether one person should be
used to serve the purposes of another is because they are sly enough to
know that either answer would be troublesome for their agenda. A yes
answer would put them firmly in the position of supporting some of
mankind's most horrible injustices such as slavery. After all, what is
slavery but the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of
another? A no answer would put them on the spot as well because that
would mean they would have to come out against taking the earnings of one
American to give to another in the forms of farm and business handouts,
Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and thousands of similar programs that
account for more than two-thirds of the federal budget. There is neither
moral justification nor constitutional authority for what amounts to
legalized theft. This is not an argument against paying taxes. We all
have a moral obligation to pay our share of the constitutionally mandated
and enumerated functions of the federal government.
Unfortunately, there is no way out of our immoral quagmire. The reason is
that now that the U.S. Congress has established the principle that one
American has a right to live at the expense of another American, it no
longer pays to be moral. People who choose to be moral and refuse
congressional handouts will find themselves losers. They'll be paying
higher and higher taxes to support increasing numbers of those paying
lower and lower taxes. As it stands now, close to 50 percent of income
earners have no federal income tax liability and as such, what do they
care about rising income taxes? In other words, once legalized theft
begins, it becomes too costly to remain moral and self-sufficient. You
might as well join in the looting, including the current looting in the
name of stimulating the economy.
I am all too afraid that a historian, a hundred years from now, will
footnote America as a historical curiosity where people once enjoyed
private property rights and limited government but it all returned to
mankind's normal state of affairs -- arbitrary abuse and control by the
powerful elite.
http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2009/04/01/our_problem_is_immorality