True Liberty
by Daryl Dominic Tan

What is true liberty? The meaning of the word ‘liberty’ has been misconstrued effortlessly time and time again to the point that no proper or correct definition serves to exist anymore. Modern liberals claim that liberty should serve to establish happiness and equality among its people through a single centralized federal government. This includes central planning of economy and installation of programs designed to help the poor. Is this really liberty? Are these programs really serving to assist the disenfranchised sectors of society? The answer is no. The only thing these programs do is create long-term fiscal problems and ultimately end up hurting the very group of people it was supposedly intended to help.

Part of these federal programs consists of higher taxes imposed and minimum wage being raised. What truly happens is that when taxes are raised, so do prices, the poor are then taxed by social security, medicare, income, property, sales taxes and so forth. Raising the minimum wage keeps hard-working individuals beneath the poverty line as options and opportunities are limited to the minimum wage and individual progress is severely hindered as a result. If this is the kind of liberty you really believe in just because your civics textbooks says so, you are tragically misinformed. This isn’t liberty, this is sole dependence on a federal government with unprecedented power, which by the way, according to the U.S constitution, has no authority to exercise and wield this much power over its people.

In this modern day “liberal” society as we speak, private property rights are being violated, the Patriot Act is still in place, the Federal Reserve continues to create paper money out of thin air that are not backed by any form of value whatsoever, government expenditure is at an all-time high, foreign occupation and intervention drags on coupled with mindless wars. This is not liberty. These are absurd displays of exorbitant power. The U.S. Government thinks it has the right to defy and amend the constitution when it sees fit. Yet, the American people still elect the same kind of candidate every four years who will carry on these same policies.

One particular policy that is an absolute travesty to mankind is the United States government's firm belief that the world can be kept safe and made a better place by installing western-style democracies in foreign countries. However, by occupying foreign territory, the United States is in fact posturing itself as having Imperialistic ambitions. Still, a large majority of the American people short-sightedly believe these efforts to be effective in bolstering national security. Any person in the right frame of mind would know that forceful coercion of a sovereign nation to adopt political positions of a different cultural background ends up sowing seeds of discontent.

A person who believes in true liberty is one who concludes that freedom and happiness should be achieved not at the expense of thy neighbor, but through thy own hard work and merits. A true liberal, or rather, a classical liberal, believes in individual freedom and personal responsibility. This same Classical liberal model that I’m talking about is known today as Libertarianism, the last vestige of any true patriotic constitutional set of beliefs that promote the principles of true liberty as the founding fathers of the United States had done.

Libertarianism advocates maximization of individual liberty and political freedom coupled with minimization of state measures. Libertarians staunchly believe that people are in charge of their own lives and that they have every right to run it according to how they see fit as long as their actions do not harm others, and also without any regulating body (like the government) leering over or stonewalling their actions and activities. Violation of privacy or rights whatsoever is completely unacceptable under Libertarian standards. After all, the moral principle of free will present in Libertarianism was what attracted me to the ideology in the first place.

One man whom I see as the guiding light for America and who understands these important principles of true liberty more than anyone else is 2012 presidential candidate, Ron Paul. His solution to the crisis? Personal freedom as well as adherence to the Austrian school of economics; a laissez-faire free-market approach to the economy. Just like Ron Paul and other stalwart proponents of Libertarianism, I now believe that a government-regulated economy would eventually choke out the fiscal system of the U.S ultimately dooming the entire American economy to the fiery depths of debt, economic chaos and ensuing poverty (I like to dramatize).

One of the biggest culprits in this entire debacle is the Federal Reserve - yet another establishment that undermines the constitution and the right for people to be informed of their activities. The fed, like the government, possesses extraordinary unconstitutional powers and can create money in a blink of an eye without approval from anyone. This is the ultimate cause of inflation with the American dollar continuing to be devalued as we speak.

But why must a federal reserve exist in the first place? Why not a free-market economy - the most logical and suitable alternative that is undoubtedly the solution to all the problems that the United States is facing right now. Why bother to bail out financial institutions that are inept at managing their own funds? It only increases further government expenditure and the unconstitutional creation of money out of thin air to fund and recover these companies. Liquidation must occur and nature must take its full course without interference. It is not the responsibility of the already debt-laden government to involve itself in the mismanagement of greedy banks and financial institutions. The preposterous notion that the government should intervene and interfere with almost every aspect of life is one that is narrow and must be written off if Americans want to gain any impetus in moving towards prosperity and freedom. It is time for people to wake up. The United States government can no longer play god. It can’t decide what is good for its own people, as well as what is good for the people of other sovereign nations.

Unfortunately though, many people prefer to be enslaved to the government as long as they are entertained and well-fed. If this is your idea of true liberty, so be it. I know what mine is.