It doesn't seem like a big deal...Until they come for YOUR freedom...

Our state has instituted “sin taxes” on candy, and soda pop. Some states are trying to regulate fat content of foods, and children’s consumption of foods deemed to be “unhealthy”. The list of regulation grows...

I have to admit that it never bothered me that there are plenty of taxes on cigarettes and liquor – mostly because I don’t smoke, and rarely have an alcoholic drink. But when they come for my candy, my pop, my french fries – I find myself thinking, “Back off!”

The premise behind this is that certain items for consumption, and certain activities, are more likely to be harmful to you. Your use or participation will probably result in physical needs that are costly to meet. So – the powers-that-be seek to discourage your participation by making it more costly to you now, as well as mitigate, with your tax dollars, the future cost of your care.

Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

Until they come for your french fries...or your motorcycle rides...or your diet Coke...or your favorite restaurant’s menu...or your helicopter skiing excursion...or your daily latte...

Then it seems like they are taking away our freedom, and regulating us all to activities that are manageable for them. I don’t like it...and I’m pretty sure that the addicted-to-risk-taking generations that follow us won’t like it either. I just can’t picture Gen X or Y (what letter are we on now?) giving up snowboarding out-of-bounds (with their transponder, of course!)to maintain good standing with their government provided health-care. I’ve always taken encouragement from the fact that Gen Y’ers won’t put up with it, and it will be the death of the idea.

However, recently, the wise Walter Williams alerted me to the problem with the premise that sounds so reasonable.

He explained that while we look at these taxes and regulations as a failure of liberty, they are not. Instead, they are a failure of socialism. Socialism presumes that the government is responsible for our care, all of it. Whether we need our bank bailed out, our health care paid for, our environment cleaned of oil, our cribs made safe, our crop failures reimbursed (the list is endless) – it is the government’s responsibility.

Of course, the government can’t do it all – unless they manage the risks, unless they curtail our freedoms. The problem is not that we choose to participate in certain behaviors. The problem is that we participate in these behaviors, expecting someone else to cover the consequences if we can’t.

Anymore, I don’t take such comfort in the attitude of the Gen Y’ers risk-taking addiction. I suppose they figure that whatever happens to them, someone else will take care of it. It now seems obvious to me that we are a society that believes we have a right to good results...no matter what we do. From ambulance-chasing lawyers, to Congressional hearings about gas pedals, we expect that anything bad that happens to us should be fixed – by the government (or some big, deep-pocketed corporation the government took to the woodshed)!

We can engage in endless discussion of what should be regulated, and why, and how, and who should receive help, and who should be protected – a morass of moral relativism that threatens to swamp us all. In reality, the issue at its basis is simple: It’s not the government’s job to take care of us, to guarantee positive outcomes for all of our lives.

I wonder how our lives might be changed if we knew that our consequences were our own...that, truly, we would reap what we sowed...that if trouble came, we had to figure it out, not submit a form to the government for aid.

It could only improve the country, in my opinion. It might produce a new generation of innovators, and confident problem-solvers, instead of the whining, self-indulgent, and apathetic society we see too often these days.

It’s been a challenge to me, and I challenge you , to recognize where we have accepted the expectation that others should mitigate the consequences of our choices. It is a sneaky little assumption that creeps into our minds more readily than we realize.

And it needs to go!