Make a list of the freedoms you cherish most. Did your grandparents also cherish them? Did they have more of them? You be the judge.
Marginal income tax rates.
In terms of access to information not controlled by the federal government, there is no question: we are vastly freer.
In terms of international trade, we are far better off.
Consider the alternatives to the Federal Communications Commission-regulated TV networks. Think: cable and the Internet.
Consider the alternatives to tax-funded schools. There are vastly more private schools. There is home schooling. The Khan Academy is free, K-12. The Ron Paul Curriculum offers a comprehensive alternative.
In terms of bureaucratic regulation, we are far worse off. The Federal Register is 80,000 pages a year. But hardly anyone cares. We do not feel the loss of liberty. That is why regulation grows.
Laws protecting privacy no longer protect us much. But in terms of cases successfully prosecuted by the federal government that rely on bureaucratic spying, I want to see the evidence. The government can find lots of needles in an exponentially growing number of haystacks. But they must expend resources to prosecute. The Patriot Act makes this legally possible. I see no evidence that the economic resources available to snoopers to prosecute in court have increased as a percentage of the federal budget. Big Brother can track what we are doing. There are a lot of us. We do an increasing amount of digital things. The federal snoopers are overwhelmed with data. Do you think they are more efficient at doing anything with this information? I want evidence.
Is the FBI more efficient than the DMV? I want proof.
(For the rest of my article, click the link.)
