02.02.06
Don’t tell me what to do, just give me a chance to do it.
The conclusion to the Reason article:Happiness Is…Higher Taxes: Is one man’s productivity another man’s pollution? really get’s to the bottom of what I would consider a guiding principle of what governments should and should not do.
In a land where Mormons, Muslims, and masochists walk side by side, and none is specially positioned to certify the correct concept of value, the role of government is not to pick a philosophy and shove it down our throats. It is to provide a reasonably neutral framework that allows each of us to pursue our ends peacefully in the light of our own convictions about the good. There’s a reason liberal democracies get top marks in happiness.
One can apply this philosophy over and over again when attempting to make decisions about which laws are good and which might not be such great ideas. Our goal should not be to better society, but rather to provide equal opportunity.
The neutral framework described in the quote isn’t a leveling of the people; forcing the strong to lift more because they are stronger, or the rich to pay more because they are richer. Instead it is a leveling of the playing field. The stronger team may still win, but everyone had an equal chance at success.
I have faith in the individual and am confident that those who will lose at one game will find another game in which they can be successful, provided the games aren’t rigged in the first place–and that, then, is the primary role of government; not to tell us which game is the right one to play.