BlogWonks

The balance sheet of freedom

By Craig J. Cantoni

Have Americans become more or less free over the last century? Let’s examine some facts before attB. ECONOMIC FREEDOM

On the plus side:

• Enactment of NAFTA and other free-trade agreements

• Deregulation of the transportation industry

• Reduction in the capital gains tax

On the minus side:

• Ratification of the 16th amendment, which has led to massive income redistribution, a tripling of taxes over the last century, and a 40,000-page tax code that even IRS doesn’t fully understand

• Taking away people’s wages before they are received, through “withholding,” implemented in WWII

• Nationalized health care and pensions for the elderly, and the corresponding confiscation of income over a working life for Social Security and Medicare

• Beneficial creation of a Social Security Trust Fund that, hmmm, doesn’t exist

• IRS regulations such as Section 401(k) of the tax code, which appear to let taxpayers keep more of their retirement savings but actually restrict how much Americans can save for retirement without being taxed on their investment income — restrictions that didn’t exist 100 years ago

• Protective tariffs on sugar and other products, and massive subsidies for farmers and industry

• A smorgasbord of employment laws, minimum wage laws and living wage laws to control how business owners can run their own private businesses

• Skyrocketing growth in nice-sounding programs that are actually transfer payments, subsidies and handouts, so that 60% of federal spending, a 12-fold increase since 1900, is now just redistribution of wealth

• An alphabet-soup of regulatory agencies that make up their own rules, with the force of law, but without direct public controls — See the 29 agencies established by FDR.

• See the hundreds of federal agencies, boards and commissions since then: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html

• 1,696 federal subsidy programs, a 44% increase since 1990 (http://www.cato.org)

• Government’s “take” from national income at 44% (up from 12% prior to 1930: http://mwhodges.home.att.net/piechart.htm

• United States drops to 10th place on the Index of Economic Freedom, which is published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal

C. CONTROLLING GOVERNMENT GROWTH

On the plus side:

• Civil Aeronautics Board abolished on Dec. 31, 1984

On the minus side:

• Federal Register grew from 4,000 pages in 1935 to 68,000 today, a 17-fold increase (http://www.nationalreview.com)

• Consumers of wealth outnumber producers of wealth — in 1940, 4 million Americans worked for government and 11 million worked in manufacturing, versus 21.5 million and 14.5 million, respectively, today

• Government at all levels now costs each family of four approximately $50,000, double the amount in 1960, in inflation-adjusted dollars

• The number of state and local government employees grew 474% since 1946, versus the 212% growth in the population

• Average hourly earnings of state and local government employees are 31% higher than the average hourly earnings of private-sector employees, not counting the richer benefits of government employees

• Unfunded liabilities of $1.4 trillion for retiree medical plans of local and state employees (http://www.cato.org)

So — minuses outnumber and outweigh plusses in every category. However, the plusses are not as weak for Civil Liberties as they are for Economic Freedom and Growth in Government.

Why? The higher number and importance of civil-liberties plusses reflect the influence that opinion makers have on the body politic — mainstream media, the K-12 public education establishment, university faculties and Hollywood. Generally, they endorse most civil liberties but are lukewarm or hostile towards Second Amendment rights, property rights, free markets, individualism and limited government.

Have Americans become more or less free over the last century? They are freer with respect to several important civil liberties, but are less free with respect to other civil liberties, economic freedom and the growth in government.

An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

Visit his website dedicated to stopping government theft and abuse.

Read a review of his book about government abuse, Breaking From The Herd.

pting an answer.

Look at three categories of freedom: civil liberties, economic freedom and size of government. As a starting point, balance sheets appear below for each category. Since the balance sheets are a work in progress, you are encouraged to offer additional facts and to point out where the balance sheets may be incorrect.

A. CIVIL LIBERTIES

On the plus side, the last century has seen:

• The end of segregation
• The enforcement of voting rights
• Increased tolerance for Jews, Catholics, homosexuals and other minorities
• Women’s suffrage

On the minus side, the last century has seen:

• State-endorsed affirmative action and set-asides that favor some races
• Speech codes on college campuses
• McCain-Feingold and other laws that restrict political speech
• The War on Drugs, which includes the prosecution of people who harm no one but themselves
• Ever-growing restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms
• The demonizing and massive taxing of people who enjoy tobacco
• Eminent domain abuses and other infringements of property rights
• Increased state involvement in the private and religious matter of holy matrimony
• Overwhelming state involvement in the personal matter of health care
• Social engineering by the left and right through the tax code
• The Patriot Act (which some say protects liberty by taking a lot of it away)
• An erosion of federalism (states’ rights) through new federal agencies and regulations, such as the Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind law
• The adoption of Blaine amendments in 38 states (which had the stated purpose of stopping the public funding of private schools but the real purpose of putting Catholic schools out of business)
• A slow and steady transformation of the nation from a constitutional republic to a majority-rule democracy, thus paving the way for the tyranny of the majority

Note: Some plusses and minuses are not listed, because they cancel each other out or were short-lived. For example, the 21st amendment canceled the 18th amendment (Prohibition). And the internment of the Japanese during WWII and the Alien and Sedition Acts of WWI were egregious but short-lived.

B. ECONOMIC FREEDOM

On the plus side:

• Enactment of NAFTA and other free-trade agreements

• Deregulation of the transportation industry

• Reduction in the capital gains tax

On the minus side:

• Ratification of the 16th amendment, which has led to massive income redistribution, a tripling of taxes over the last century, and a 40,000-page tax code that even IRS doesn’t fully understand

• Taking away people’s wages before they are received, through “withholding,” implemented in WWII

• Nationalized health care and pensions for the elderly, and the corresponding confiscation of income over a working life for Social Security and Medicare

• Beneficial creation of a Social Security Trust Fund that, hmmm, doesn’t exist

• IRS regulations such as Section 401(k) of the tax code, which appear to let taxpayers keep more of their retirement savings but actually restrict how much Americans can save for retirement without being taxed on their investment income — restrictions that didn’t exist 100 years ago

• Protective tariffs on sugar and other products, and massive subsidies for farmers and industry

• A smorgasbord of employment laws, minimum wage laws and living wage laws to control how business owners can run their own private businesses

• Skyrocketing growth in nice-sounding programs that are actually transfer payments, subsidies and handouts, so that 60% of federal spending, a 12-fold increase since 1900, is now just redistribution of wealth

• An alphabet-soup of regulatory agencies that make up their own rules, with the force of law, but without direct public controls — See the 29 agencies established by FDR.

• See the hundreds of federal agencies, boards and commissions since then: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html

• 1,696 federal subsidy programs, a 44% increase since 1990 (http://www.cato.org)

• Government’s “take” from national income at 44% (up from 12% prior to 1930: http://mwhodges.home.att.net/piechart.htm

• United States drops to 10th place on the Index of Economic Freedom, which is published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal

C. CONTROLLING GOVERNMENT GROWTH

On the plus side:

• Civil Aeronautics Board abolished on Dec. 31, 1984

On the minus side:

• Federal Register grew from 4,000 pages in 1935 to 68,000 today, a 17-fold increase (http://www.nationalreview.com)

• Consumers of wealth outnumber producers of wealth — in 1940, 4 million Americans worked for government and 11 million worked in manufacturing, versus 21.5 million and 14.5 million, respectively, today

• Government at all levels now costs each family of four approximately $50,000, double the amount in 1960, in inflation-adjusted dollars

• The number of state and local government employees grew 474% since 1946, versus the 212% growth in the population

• Average hourly earnings of state and local government employees are 31% higher than the average hourly earnings of private-sector employees, not counting the richer benefits of government employees

• Unfunded liabilities of $1.4 trillion for retiree medical plans of local and state employees (http://www.cato.org)

So — minuses outnumber and outweigh plusses in every category. However, the plusses are not as weak for Civil Liberties as they are for Economic Freedom and Growth in Government.

Why? The higher number and importance of civil-liberties plusses reflect the influence that opinion makers have on the body politic — mainstream media, the K-12 public education establishment, university faculties and Hollywood. Generally, they endorse most civil liberties but are lukewarm or hostile towards Second Amendment rights, property rights, free markets, individualism and limited government.

Have Americans become more or less free over the last century? They are freer with respect to several important civil liberties, but are less free with respect to other civil liberties, economic freedom and the growth in government.

An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

Visit his website dedicated to stopping government theft and abuse.

Read a review of his book about government abuse, Breaking From The Herd.