Don Boudreaux, of Cafe Hayek fame, posted his thoughts yesterday on the entitlement mentality that many harbor in this country and around the world.  In his post, the object of felt entitlement was for the fruit of another’s labor, a sense of deserving that which one hasn’t themselves produced.  I know very few people who would come right out and say that they had a morally-correct claim on another’s wealth, but when rephrased into political language, almost everyone falls into the entitlement camp.  Indeed, this type of entitlement mentality is highly conducive to government growth, the Political Class builds their Leviathan State upon it.  Politicians can induce envy and resentment in the populace against various hobgoblins and harness it to create the legislative monstrosities that result in rampant taxation, regulation, and war.

But what about another entitlement mentality, one that is imminently unpopular with the Political Class because to allow this mentality to flourish would mean the obliteration of their power?  I’m talking about the sense of entitlement one has for liberty.  The liberty to keep your entire paycheck, to voluntarily enter and exit personal and business relationships at will, the sense of entitlement for unhampered voluntarism.

I don’t mean merely liberty for oneself, but liberty for everyone.  I’m greatly benefited by whatever liberty supermarkets have to operate in the market, or whatever liberty doctors have in treating my family and I.  A sense of entitlement for liberty is the one entitlement mentality the political elite will not tolerate, because it is the immovable object blocking their path to power.  That’s why liberty is portrayed as selfish, dangerous, reckless, etc., despite the fact that whatever liberty we still retain is responsible for the degree of prosperity, peace, and civilization we enjoy.  Liberty addresses social dilemmas far better and far more quickly than bureaucrats, who, rather than solving social dilemmas, merely exploit their existence to increase regulation and taxation, effectively creating more social dilemmas.  And whether it’s the Drug War, terrorism, poverty, crime, pollution, etc., government is the chief source of social pollution.

Destroying liberty seems to be the obviously wrong answer to the US-instigated chaos in the Middle East.  The right, and only effective, answer would be to immediately withdraw troops, weapons, and tax dollars and stop worrying about every hiccup in relations between Third World dictators and their detractors.  It would save billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and realistically reduce terrorism, since it’s the policy of never-ending drone-bombing of Middle Eastern villages, payoffs to their corrupt leaders, and weapons deals with head-chopping murderers creates the terrorism.  That is far too inconvenient for the Political Class, who would prefer to take this opportunity to ban cash.

A relevant sentence from the linked article: “Not even the worst dictatorships in history eliminated money outright.”

Continuing waves of chaos rippling outward from the 2003 US invasion.  From Antiwar.com.

That’s how this election cycle should be viewed, with the citizen voting accordingly.  Meaning not at all.

Production of good and services in every other part of the economy shrank.

Dan Sanchez on this insidious evil, at Mises.  Relevant sentences: “Instead of obnoxiously demanding that the public hand over its wealth, the government just quietly siphons it away. This way it avoids public outrage and resistance, and so is able to maximize the loot.  As Jean Baptiste Colbert (finance minister to King Louis XIV of France) put it, “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing.” With inflation, the geese hardly hiss, because they think they are simply molting, and are unaware they are even being plucked.”

…for standing up to the Israel Lobby, and the Political Class in general.  Relevant sentences: “Anytime a man can say to those who control the politics of America, ‘I don’t want your money,’ that means you can’t control me. And they cannot afford to give up control of the presidents of the United States.” Farrakhan said in the sermon. Though he said he admires Trump’s independence, the 82-year-old leader stopped short of endorsing the first-time novice politician for president.

Independence of the Political Class does not mean he’s for liberty, which should be obvious.  If Trump has ever espoused a consciously libertarian principle, it’s been purely by accident, and even Trump himself doesn’t realize it.  He’s no Ron Paul, he’s never spoken about liberty in his life, he only talks about what he’ll use government for. 

Larry Summers, who believes cash=terrorism and wants to ban the $100 bill.  It’s a point in Trump’s favor to have enemies like this, and like it or not, and I most certainly do not, Trump will be our next President.  Might as well replace Ben Franklin with Trump’s orange mug.

From Reason.  Relevant sentences: “…Apple’s battle isn’t against a one-off court order to crack an encrypted phone; it’s the latest skirmish in the government’s ongoing war against privacy protections—as well as an act of resistance against federal efforts to conscript the private sector into its crusade.

…The tech giant’s public resistance is a block to officials’ proven inability to keep secrets of any sort, and the emptiness of its promises to fulfill assurances of confidentiality.

…It’s almost certainly true that the FBI doesn’t intend to share the weakened operating system far and wide. But the very public battle between law enforcement and a tech industry giant escalated even as federal officials scrambled to clean up the mess left by hackers’ release of personal information on 20,000 FBI employees and 9,000 Department of Homeland Security officers.

…The weakened operating system sought by the FBI, easing access to iPhones, would logically be a very desirable target for hackers both freelance and state-sponsored. And while FBI Director Comey promises “We don’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land,” restraint in its use would depend not only on FBI intentions, but on the integrity of government security procedures that have proven to be insufficient to the task, time and again.”

It will only be a matter of time before the backdoor master key is stolen and “loose on the land” if Apple caves.  It’s only a matter of how many people will buy the “threat of terrorism” baloney that will be trotted out and escalated as the battle continues.

Says Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg.