What Did We Learn From The Revolutionary War?

The upcoming 4th of July holiday makes me relate our current problems to those "days of yore". What about today's conflict over immigration? What about the insistence by R's and D's alike that we need a "mixed" marketplace? Does top-down regulation and control deliver on its promises? Or, like libertarians like to say, does every government program exacerbate the problem it claims to be curing?

The Revolutionary War was fought in part because of all the trade restrictions that England was heaping on the colonies. There were lots of restrictions, fees, taxes, and regulations that were in place to stop newcomers from starting up new businesses. This mercantilist mentality made sense to many people, because they thought that newcomers were going to hurt the businesses that they had grown accustomed to. The restrictions not only hurt new businesses, the restrictions also hurt consumers the way any monopoly hurts consumers; prices and shortages increased while quality declined. Also, the burden on creativity kept new inventions and innovations out of the marketplace. . . All in the name of benefitting the existing businesses.

There are so many parallels we can draw between these restrictions on newcomers in businesses and restrictions on newcomers we call "immigrants". Restrictions on immigration are just another form of welfare. These restrictions benefit the existing populace. In effect, this creates a monopoly that raises prices and dampens creativity in the marketplace. Never mind that the marketplace we're talking about is what we call "the US population"; we are shooting ourselves in the foot by creating a monopoly on "citizenship" for the current residents of the US.

For every one privileged person who is "protected" and "supported" by immigration or business restrictions and regulations, there are hundreds and thousands of people who are being hurt by such an enforced monopoly. Taxes are raised to support these laws, politicians get expanded powers, freedoms are jeopardized, busybody neighbors spy on neighbors, new businesses are stifled, prices are pushed up, the variety of goods and services is limited, creative market solutions and innovations are smothered, and on and on. It's what government does to everything it touches; the benefits are visible, while most of the costs are invisible. When future prosperity and happiness are thwarted, you don't see a crater in the ground where that future was going to sprout.

"Since no one but you can know what's best for you, government control can't make your life better." Harry Browne

The War on Immigrants

The war on immigrants is the same as any other war.

Governments use wars to distract from problems they have created at home. Riding on the wave of mob-hysteria created by their wars, they expand their power, wealth, and dominance.

War is the health of the state. Even if there seems to be good reasons for going to war, as in WWI & WWII, it's not worth the price we pay in lost freedom, wrecked lives, and ruined economies.

Americans fought the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 to avoid the single-digit taxation from England. How is America's level of taxation now?

Americans fought WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War, in order to fight the spread of Socialism, Fascism, and Communism. How is America's level of Socialism, Fascism, and Communism now? Things get worse with every war and with every election cycle.

Every war, large or small, is used as an excuse to expand the dominance of the state and shrink the rights of individuals. War is just a way to get the populace riled up and running to their masters for protection. And the Spin-Doctors keep Waggin the Dog!

Strong borders will cost billions of dollars, and those billions will go to the usual military-industrial corporations, making those corporations more dominant in US policy-making.

Those corporations already own the big media, the Pentagon, the White House, big pharma, big politicians, etc. They get money from big-government programs like the "border war", the "drug war", the "war on climate change", the "War on Terror", and so on. And then they use that money to drum up new wars and worries - false flag operations, whatever it takes, ... Whatever they think they can get away with.

I suggest We Don't Get Fooled Again.

The R's & D's play "good cop, bad cop" in a sleazy display of Political Theater, and everyone lines up to cheer their team. No matter which side you are cheering for, big government and big corporations are always the winners, while tax-payers and basic human rights are always the losers.

Better to admit that Constitutional Representative government is a failed experiment, many times over. Let's start looking for ways to dismantle the biggest, most expensive government in the known universe.