Liberty or Sustainable Development?
Chapter 2: The Decay of Liberty – An Illustration
Sunday, July 6, 2008
By Michael Shaw
Freedom Advocates
The
American culture is experiencing the consequences of declining individual
responsibility and rising dependency. The genuine free trade principles
that guide an honest economy have been abandoned.
Instead we live with increasing subsidies, barriers to entry, government regulation
and government intervention into the lives of what could and should
be a free citizenry. The mechanics of special-interest politics vest
power in the hands of big government liberals and big government conservatives
while our freedoms vanish. The consequence of this decline has been
to alter the purposes of American social, political and economic institutions.
One example is charity. In a free society, charity receives contributions
from individuals or groups to help others meet needs. In essence, charity
is both a broker and an agent of benevolence. In modern society, many
charities are ‘tax deductible’ 501c(3)’s. They seek
grants of coerced tax revenue in exchange for regulatory compliance
to government mandates. The consequence is that the goal of charitable
incentives shift from genuine benevolence to creating a growing caseload.
A growing caseload depends on receiving ever larger government grants.
Coercive money sources are incompatible with benevolent giving. Shifting
charitableness from benevolence to bureaucracy contributes to social
decay.
The cause of this decay is not an accident. It can be traced, in part at
least, to the globalist political movement. Compare now to conditions
forty years ago and you find a documented plan for creating a global
state collective. It is called “Sustainable Development.”
Liberty! or Sustainable Development is a 13 Chapter serial adaptation of the
transcript of Michael Shaw’s opening speech from the video: Liberty
or Sustainable Development. Michael Shaw is President
of Freedom Advocates.org. He can be reached at Shaw@FreedomAdvocates.org.
Chapter 1: Understanding Liberty ----
Chapter 2: The Decay of Liberty – An Illustration ----
Chapter 3: Defining Sustainable Development ----
Chapter 4: Liberty or Sustainable Development? ----
Chapter 5: A Closer Look at Sustainable Development Part A----
Chapter 6: A Closer Look at Sustainable Development Part B----
Chapter 7: Sustainable Development’s
Land Use Element ----
Chapter 8: Rooting
Sustainable Development in the USA----
Chapter 9: A Healthy Planet and
Individual Liberty are Inseparable----
Chapter 10: Reinvention
of Government - Part 1----
Chapter 11: Reinvention
of Government - Part 2----
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