-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.11/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.11/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 11</A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times March 15, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 11 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ----- The Emperor's War-drobe by Sunni Maravillosa A popular children�s story tells the tale of an Emperor who was conned by two thieves who pretended to be weavers. In exchange for huge quantities of gold thread, they agree to weave a "magic fabric" that is visible only to those who aren�t foolish. Not wanting to appear foolish, ministers and the Emperor fuss and exclaim over the "cloth", which gets "made" into a suit for the Emperor. A little boy finally ends the charade, yelling as the Emperor parades by, "The Emperor�s got no clothes on!" Once he�s spoken out, others begin to drop their acts. This fairy tale has long been one of my favorites. As an adult, the parallels between the Emperor and the United States government are obvious. We don�t have an Emperor, of course, not in the sense of one person who rules us. Instead, the federal government is the Emperor�the system continues on its way irrespective of the individuals who "represent" the citizens, passed down from administration to administration. Not content with just one suit, however, our Emperor has an entire wardrobe that it claims is wondrous and beautiful. Interestingly, many of the "suits" in this wardrobe are garments of �war�. A Look Through the War-drobe Our Emperor has robed itself in war garb for several decades now. Remember the "war on poverty"? Lyndon Johnson, as part of his plan to create "The Great Society", formally declared this war, although it had really begun years earlier as the politicians tried to boost the country out of the Great Depression. All the things that have been touted as ending poverty�among them unemployment "insurance", Medicare, the Jobs Corps, federal aid for education, minimum wage laws�have only served to make it harder for an individual to meet his or her needs. In fact, lower-income people generally pay more into such programs than they receive in so-called benefits. Minimum wages artificially inflate salaries, reduce the pool of jobs because businesses have to reallocate funds to cover the higher wage rates, and raise the price of goods and services. For all, welfare has become a particularly insidious drain, as it�s created a class of individuals who have no incentive to work to better their lives, and who feel entitled to stolen money to support their lives. More than a trillion dollars and three decades later, even prominent liberals are conceding defeat. Next was the "war on illiteracy". Aghast at the downward trend of statistics tracking the state of American education, billions of dollars have been poured into public education. From kindergarten to college, curricula have been weakened with lessons in manners, "self-esteem", and "critical analyses" of television programs. Grade inflation has become rampant, as has grading on extreme curves in order not to fail students and thereby crush their "self-esteem". Scores of administrators and assistants now "do" what a principal and several teachers used to do, and do it much less well. The result is skyrocketing per-student costs of education, increasing levels of illiteracy and other academic incompetence, and droves of the brightest students leaving public school s in favor of private ones, or for homeschooling. Our current war is a revisitation of an old war which was never formally declared. Prohibition was the name given to the "war on alcohol", as religious and other do-gooders tried to keep "demon rum" from destroying the moral fabric of the country. Based on arguments that alcohol is a dangerous drug that ruins lives, families, and communities, and that it was government�s responsibility to remove such dangerous temptation from reach, alcohol sales were barred by federal law from 1920 until 1933. In part because so many people ignored the law�including many officials, either willingly or due to corruption�organized crime escalated to fill the need and reap the profits of illegal activities centered on providing alcohol to the large underground market. Sounds all too familiar, doesn�t it? Our current "war on (some) drugs" relies on much of the same arguments for prohibition. The resulting illegal drug trafficking, and the tragedies associated with the illegality of buying, selling, and using certain substances, are mirrors of "revenooers" and "rum runners" from sixty years ago. The only difference is that the casualties are spread across many substance users today, whereas then the absurdity of prohibition was focused with laser precision on one substance. A side note: The war on alcohol offers a valuable lesson for those who believe that these wars are "must-win" situations for the Emperor. Prohibition was such an abject failure that the Emperor finally gave in and repealed it. The sky did not fall, nor did the country drown under a flood of booze as a result. It is possible to admit defeat and to move forward from that, even for the Emperor, without disastrous consequences. Another undeclared war that rages is the "war on sex". Spurred by the vestiges of puritanism, in most of the Emperor�s realm certain sexual acts�even if performed between husband and wife in the privacy of their home�are illegal. Certain forms of partnership relationships�cohabitation without marriage, same-sex partnerships, and multiple-partner relationships, among others�are similarly prohibited in areas. Unless you�re a famous actor or actress performing certain sexual acts for pay in the making of a movie, such an exchange of services for money is illegal in almost all places. The right to buy sexually explicit magazines or movies, or sexual aids, is prohibited by the Emperor�s minions in many areas. The result of this war on sex is much the same as those of the war on some drugs�people are unnecessarily subjected to threats and harm, as the more predatory among the Emperor�s citizens dominate what could otherwise be a peaceful line of business. Accessorizing these splendid robes are a number of other projects and programs intended to help the Emperor�s citizens. Social Security was intended as a means to help individuals save for retirement, but it�s become a morass of intergenerational theft that will soon be unable to meet its obligations. The National Endowment for the Arts supports creative work that the marketplace doesn�t. Agricultural subsidies inflate the prices of many goods, and hinder competition of some American products in the international marketplace. The Federal Communications Commission mucks around with radio and television access and content, contributing to what one songwriter described as "57 channels and nothing on". The Environmental Protection Agency makes criminals out of individuals who cut the bushes around their homes, or who build homes where certain birds might nest. And the list goes on and on. Cut From the Same Cloth All these programs, and I daresay every program the Emperor has decreed is for our benefit, has high costs associated with it. It�s difficult to think of an example where the government program would outperform private alternatives given head-to-head competition. In his 1965 State of the Union speech, Lyndon Johnson outlined his plan for "The Great Society". He believed that this wonderful society would come about from a variety of federally-sponsored programs intended to improve the quality of life for all Americans. However, as programs before and since have demonstrated, this good intention is never satisfied�the price is always too high, in terms of choices restricted, privacy violated, markets skewed, or unwitting criminals created. This Emperor doesn�t have only one suit cut from the magic "invisible" cloth: the entire wardrobe is a chimera of hopes and plans that don�t cover its bare-naked ass. That �ass� is the fact that the government cannot legislate, mandate, or create happiness for individuals. More individuals are starting to realize the fallacy of government help, and are pointing out the nudity of the Emperor of the US. Some have noticed a suit or two are actually nothing; they should be encouraged to examine carefully the entire wardrobe for substance. It may take persistence�as with the Emperor and his ministers, some still believe that they can�t be so foolish as to be unable to see what others say is there�but it is well worth it if it leads to our "Emperor�s" embarrassed withdrawal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sunni Maravillosa is a psychology professor, a writer, and the web mistress for the Liberty Round Table. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 11, March 15, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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