Nick Galieti’s book “Tree of Sacrament” is a quick, concise read on the importance of the Sacrament. For too many Latter-day Saints, the Sacrament can be an ordeal as we worry about keeping the kids quiet and getting on to the talks or testimony. Galieti reminds us that the Sacrament is the primary reason to come to Church in the first place.
Author Archives: Geoff B.
Modern-day prophets discuss freedom (first in a series)
This is an excerpt from “The Law of the Harvest: As a Man Sows, So Shall He Reap.” Elder Howard W. Hunter. BYU Devotional. March 8, 1966.
From my own experience in business and as a lawyer and church worker, and from my firsthand observations in this country and other countries of the world, there appears to me to be a trend to shift responsibility for life and its processes from the individual to the state. In this shift there is a basic violation of the Law of the Harvest, or the law of justice. The attitude of “something for nothing” is encouraged. The government is often looked to as the source of wealth. There is the feeling that the government should step in and take care of one’s needs, one’s emergencies, and one’s future.
Just as my friend actually became a slave to his own ignorance and bad habits by refusing to accept the responsibility for his own education and moral growth, so, also, can an entire people be imperceptibly transferred from individuals, families, and communities to the Federal Government.
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We are born to trade, and markets are moral
Imagine you are at a garage sale. You are looking through the cast-off clothes, furniture and other junk of some other person. You find a coffee table that is perfect for your living room. You pay $40 for it, which is the asking price.
You are ecstatic. A new coffee table like this would have cost $250. You just saved $210!
It turns out the seller is also ecstatic. She didn’t need that table anymore because she never really liked it anyway. She just got $40 for something she probably would have thrown away!
It turns out that trades like this make us happy for good biological reasons. We are social creatures, and we like interacting with other people and trading things. We love it when we complete a trade that is win-win. We love it when we develop trust with our fellow human beings.
There is a new field of study that looks into this called neuroeconomics. This field is discussed in this video here and this article here. Please look at this two links before commenting on this post.
OK, you looked at those two links? Now, let’s discuss this issue.
Imagining a free world
Ludwig von Mises’s 1945 book “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War,” describes how national socialism in Germany led to a rejection of classical liberalism. Here is how von Mises (an Austrian) describes the opposite of national socialism:
In order to grasp the meaning of this liberal program we need to imagine a world order in which liberalism is supreme. Either all the states in it are liberal, or enough are so that when united they are able to repulse an attack of militarist aggressors. In this liberal world, or liberal part of the world, there is private property in the means of production. The working of the market is not hampered by government interference. There are no trade barriers; men can live and work where they want. Frontiers are drawn on the maps but they do not hinder the migrations of men and shipping of commodities. Natives do not enjoy rights that are denied to aliens. Governments and their servants restrict their activities to the protection of life, health, and property against fraudulent or violent aggression. They do not discriminate against foreigners. The courts are independent and effectively protect everybody against the encroachments of officialdom. Everyone is permitted to say, to write, and to print what he likes. Education is not subject to government interference. Governments are like night-watchmen whom the citizens have entrusted with the task of handling the police power. The men in office are regarded as mortal men, not as superhuman beings or as paternal authorities who have the right and duty to hold the people in tutelage. Governments do not have the power to dictate to the citizens what language they must use in their daily speech or in what language they must bring up and educate their children. Administrative organs and tribunals are bound to use each man’s language in dealing with him, provided this language is spoken in the district by a reasonable number of residents.
You do not have a ‘right’ to health care
Rand Paul is correct. You do not have a right to health care. Anybody who thinks he or she has a right to health care does not understand how natural law and natural rights work in a free republic.
Anybody who thinks he or she has a right to health care must also explain why everybody doesn’t have a “right” to a new Mercedes or a new boat.
Anybody who thinks he or she has a right to health care must explain how he or she is going to pursue that “right.” Can you force somebody else to provide health care for you? Can you go to your neighbor’s house and steal money from them to pay for your new found “right?”
The laws of natural law and natural rights are very clear, and have been since the 17th century.