Government Can't Make Us Happy. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called the pursuit of happiness an unalienable right.
This was a radical idea. For most of history, most people didn't think much about pursuing happiness. They were too busy just trying to survive. Then came the liberal revolution based on the idea of individual freedom. Only then did they start thinking that happiness might be possible on earth. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the right to pursue happiness has been perverted into a government-backed entitlement to happiness. British Prime Minister David Cameron says, "There's more to life than money. ...
Well-being sounds good. Philip Booth, an economist with London's Institute of Economic Affairs and editor of "... "It's not a model that most Western societies would want to copy," Booth said. I didn't think so. That's nonsense, said Coyne. What does make people happy? Time to Tame the Federal Beast. When the federal government was created, those who risked their lives and their fortunes and their scared honors to secede from England were animated by recent events.
The government did not come into existence in a vacuum. Rather, those who led the Revolutionary War joined those who fought and financed it to create a central government that would be constitutionally incapable of doing to Americans what King George III and Parliament did to the colonists. The king abridged many personal freedoms, but among them, religion and the right to keep income were at the top of the list, along with the freedom of speech and the right to be left alone.
The reason that religious rights and property rights so animated the Founders is simple: They had been aggressively assaulted by the British government, and most of it had to do with money. The king and Parliament imposed a tax on the colonists to support the king's church in England. Complex Societies Need Simple Laws - John Stossel. "If you have 10,000 regulations," Winston Churchill said, "you destroy all respect for law.
" He was right. But Churchill never imagined a government that would add 10,000 year after year. That's what we have in America. We have 160,000 pages of rules from the feds alone. States and localities have probably doubled that. So what do the politicians and bureaucrats of the permanent government do? That's not good. Politicians sometimes say they understand the problem. This is also not good. When so much is illegal, common sense dies. Think I exaggerate? The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, sometimes called the first libertarian thinker, said, "The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished. ... Judge Andrew Napolitano - Conservative Columnist and Political Commentator. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Notre Dame Law School, Judge Andrew P.
Napolitano is the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of New Jersey. He sat on the bench from 1987 to 1995, during which time he presided over 150 jury trials and thousands of motions, sentencings and hearings. He taught constitutional law at Seton Hall Law School for 11 years, and he returned to private practice in 1995. Judge Napolitano began television work in … show more the same year. As Fox News’ Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Napolitano broadcasts nationwide on the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network throughout the day, Monday through Friday.
Judge Napolitano also lectures nationally on the U.S. The Judge is the author of five books on the U.S. ... show less. John Stossel - Conservative Columnist and Political Commentator.