Day: January 27, 2012

http://lewrockwell.com/napolitano/napolitano37.1.html

How Much Economic Freedom Do We Have in the United States?
by Andrew P. Napolitano

*** begin quote ***

The root of economic freedom is the recognition of the right to own private property. That includes the right to utilize it unmolested, to dispose of it without anyone’s permission and to exclude anyone from it, even the government. Suffice it to say, no American president since the advent of the income tax and the Federal Reserve 100 years ago has fully accepted or meaningfully defended that right. The more the government extracts in taxes and the more it inflates the money supply, the more it rejects and assaults property rights.

*** and ***

There is not a single example in human history of central economic planning producing more prosperity than a free market. The framers understood that. That’s why they wrote a Constitution that prohibited an income tax, forbade the states from interfering with contracts, and prevented the feds from taking life, liberty or property without due process. All those constitutional prohibitions have been nullified by amendment or disregarded by consensus.

*** end quote ***

From the diktats (i.e., what the politicians call “laws” and “regulations”) that deprive folks of their property, to the taxes and inflation to just steal their wealth, we have no property rights.

In New Jersey, the real estate property tax mostly to support the Gooferment Skrules turns owners into defacto “renters.

How can you think we are free?

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Jan-20 @ 09:32