Issue 42.16
It has always been interesting to me that Jefferson used the phrase “Pursuit of Happiness” rather than just the single word “happiness” when describing this unalienable right in the Declaration of Independence. It is a pointed reminder that happiness is an ongoing choice, not a right. However, we do have a right to make the choices and surround ourselves with the things and people that we feel will give us the best chance at happiness – thus the pursuit of happiness. That is one of the reasons that the term “property” was not included in the final draft. Jefferson and others felt that the property we created and surrounded ourselves with was up to us to choose by our efforts and industry. The Bill of Rights made it clear that the government did not have an entitlement to our property, thus clearing the way for us to create situations conducive to happiness for ourselves and those around us. By extension, it seems clear to me that our pursuit of happiness is enabled by freedom and liberty. When we understand the concept of being “Liber”, we realize that we have control and responsibility for our choices and the results or consequences of those choices. When we choose responsibly and wisely, we create for ourselves the prosperity, individuality, character and well-being that we want and which are most designed to make us happy.
Some of the choices we get to make include our profession, our hobbies, our allotments of time to pleasure, work, spiritual pursuits, relationships, etc. If we choose to invest, save and work effectively, we are likely to have more free time as we age and more ability to provide wants and needs for ourselves and loved ones. If we choose to become educated and experienced, our value increases as does our ability to serve and bless others. All of these things contribute to what we perceive as happiness and constitute our pursuit of that condition.
To the extent that government interferes with those choices, it is infringing upon our unalienable rights. It is dangerous that government is portraying itself as the source of the tools of happiness. For most of us, but most especially for the poor, we see government trying to provide income, jobs, housing, culture, food, medical care and a myriad of other things. The problem with all this is that it ignores a critical truth of economics – everything must be created in some way and someone must pay or work for everything provided.
If government is to provide all of the above items for us, who will create it? Who will pay for it? Who will distribute it? Who will determine who gets what? There are only two choices. Either someone else has to do the work or provide the money for all these things, or we have to borrow to pay for them. If someone else pays for them with their labor or money, that is theft. We are taking the labor or money of one person in order to give it to another. That is illegal in the private sector and morally wrong in the public sector. It cannot be justified within the context of the principles of unalienable rights that we are saying we believe in and adhere to. The other choice is to borrow. When you borrow, you place yourself in servitude to others because the fruits of your labor are no longer yours, and your choices as to what you can do are limited. You must serve your master or incur the penalties that come with defaulting. This also violates the unalienable right of liberty, as we become servants rather than free men and women.
In our country we have allowed our leaders to do both – borrowing (approaching $20 trillion, which amounts to over $90,000 for every man, woman and child in the nation) and taking from some citizens to give to others (theft). This can accomplish temporary prosperity and a sense of well-being. But is it justifiable for us to do this and then leave the payment of the bill to our children and take the prosperity and well-being of others so as to provide ourselves with it? Most of us would never go into someone else’s home and take the fruits of their labors for ourselves, but we allow our politicians to do so every day so they can promise and provide more and more and point to it, saying, “See what I did for you? Vote for me!” Until we realize how we are subverting the principles of freedom, we will never be truly free or happy. I hope we can learn these principles and insist that our representatives honor them.
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.