"Trust Us (We Don't Trust You)"

The heart of regulation

Americans are tyrannized by hundreds of thousands of federal, state, county, municipal, and township regulations. Want to do something? The government will tell you what you can and can’t do, where you can do it (and where you can’t), how you must do it, when you can do it, and often, with whom you can do it. Many of these regulations are “for your safety” or “for your protection” or some other similar argument “for your good.” The mindset of the majority of legislators and bureaucrats is that they know best.

Recently, I listened to debate on a state education bill that would have given parents true educational freedom and choice, not funded by the government. The tenor of the debate was that parents could not be trusted to choose a proper location or teacher for their children’s education. One legislator said it plainly, “I don’t trust people that much.” And that is the issue at the heart of most legislation and regulation!

Legislators at every level of government are often some of the most ill-informed people on the issues, yet they believe that they make better decisions for their constituents than their constituents can make for themselves. The Founding Fathers strongly distrusted government and put the power in the hands of the people. Government has slowly usurped that power, one bill and one regulation at a time. It’s time to wrest it back from government agents who don’t trust us! STEP OUT!