Where Were You When I Was Losing My Rights?

You might be wondering why voters have permitted the country's economy to deteriorate, why voters didn't elect legislators and others who would vote for a fair division of the economic pie.

First of all, most voters don't understand that the economy is bad because of the activities of our elected officials. Voters are led to believe that we are living through an extended economic downturn, which was predictable, except perhaps for the length, and that things will get better.

But, we've seen that this argument, closely related to macro-economic or voodoo analysis, doesn't offer any believable reasons for the state of economic affairs, but only debate, none of which can be won by one side or the other, for which politicians have been grateful.

I have noticed over the years that when someone loses his rights by reason of the excess of government (implementing some micro-economic restraint which destroys a legitimate business activity of someone, for example), nobody goes to the defense of the oppressed person.

Nobody ever seems to care that government oppresses someone. The feeling of most persons is, probably, thank God that the government is going after someone else and not me.

Yet, when the government finally goes after the other person who previously did nothing, nobody goes to his aid either, and the failure of one to defend the rights of another causes the loss of rights for us all.

An example of this is illegal ticketing. Car owners who are illegally ticketed have nobody raising hell with City Hall for the illegal, revenue-raising ticketing. Car owners who didn't get ticketed figure it's not their fight; persons without cars sometimes cheer as the tickets are issued and the tow trucks tow away the car of the unwitting visitor.

This obvious unwillingness for the public to defend the rights of persons gives rise to the divide and conquer way of depriving citizens of our respective rights.

Rather than creating any public debate over the excesses of government, the major media push matters which will have no adverse economic effect on the rich or the poor no matter who wins the argument. Thus, you have the major media giving the public O.J. Simpson, Waco, Oklahoma City explosion, World Trade Center bombing, football and baseball instead of information about the ways in which government and big business are depriving Americans of their fair share of the economic pie.

The major media does this to protect its advertisers, big businesses generally, who could large amounts of money or capital value if some of the excesses of government were eliminated; also, the news media, as big businesses themselves, are not saying what's going on out of a desire to protect their own financial interests, including the loss of angry advertisers.

We have to overcome the divide and conquer way of depriving Americans of their fair share of the economic pie by encouraging citizens to protect the rights of a person under attack, in order to have a group of persons ready to help when their own rights are being infringed.

The public should be on the lookout for governmental excesses, and assist in complaining about the excesses.

For example, federal and state laws, rules and regulations prevent small businesses from raising capital, something which is not generally known. It is illegal for a small business to run an advertisement in a newspaper or on television seeking to raise capital, without costly, time-consuming compliance with the federal securities laws and state blue-sky laws.

Does this trouble you? Can't you understand that the so-called free market in the U.S. is not so free for small business when small business cannot compete for the savings of the American public. And the American public loses the opportunity of investing in small business, which everyone knows is the growth sector of the U.S. economy.

Imagine what would happen in the U.S. if small business could raise money without these securities and blue-sky laws. Millions of new jobs would be created, the cost of goods and services would go down and the quality and service factors would go up, and the standard of living would go up, while the excess profits of big business would go down.

Is anyone for these consequences? Unless there is competition for capital, we won't enjoy these consequences and business will continue as usual, with the rich getting richer and the poor and middle class losing more ground.

The same is true for education. Parents are given the argument that a vote against the existing educational system is a vote against their children. Actually, votes for the existing educational system has contributed to the inability of high school graduates to get a good job, and the inability of employers to obtain high quality employees in many areas at a cost which the employers can afford.

All of us need to learn more about the government's invasion of the rights of its citizens and other residents, and develop ways in which this information can be distributed and related discussion can take place, and where associations can be formed to attempt to do something about the governmental excesses.

Obviously, internet is a good way for information to be made available, for discussion to take place, for associations to develop, and for appropriate action (using mailing lists, usenet groups, e-mail, IRC and even local in-person meetings) to take place.

Appropriate pressure can be brought on legislators, other elected officials and others in government to force them to rethink their excess actions, or run the risk of significant loss of votes during the next election.

Copyright © 1995 by Carl E. Person. Permission is given for non-commercial users to send a copy of the data processing file for this work by electronic means to a specific individual for his or her own use, and then only if the entire file is sent, including this copyright notice, but no permission is given for anyone to copy or transmit this file for or to any person for public viewing or downloading. It is intended by the author of this work that the work shall be made available in electronic form only through LawMall (tm).