Posted: 2/25/2015
The Prevention Of Harm To Individuals
The perfect pretense for government paternalism or the nanny state! Or to protect us from ourselves nonsense!
Predominance Of Ex Post Prevention Of Harm
In most Western democracies one can observe how over the past 100-200 years governments and legislatures have increasingly implemented laws, regulations, and bureaucracies in pursuit of more ex post prevention of harm at the expense of individual freedom and responsibility.
In the U.S. we have since the early 20th century e.g. a plethora of federal agencies who constantly interfere in a myriad of ways with our daily lives in any state:
- U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA)
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
- U.S. Department Of Transportation (DoT)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (DoA)
- U.S. Department of Health And Human Services (HHS)
- U.S. Department of Education (DoE)
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Federal Communication Commission (FCC)
- And the list goes on and on
Banning light bulbs or mandating the amount of water that can be flushed in a toilet or the infamous Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards are just a few examples of how Big Government operates.
Why do we have so many prescription drugs?
Why do we have speed limits instead of speed recommendations?
Without the FCC we could have had smartphones 10-20 years earlier!
Limited And Small Government
Such a government should primarily focus on punishing criminals of any kind, white collar or other, with a guilty mind (mens rea) and let individuals decide for themselves how they want to live their lives.
Second, such a government should focus on research and advice of the general public or businesses to improve the human condition not rely on mandates etc.
Only as an ultima ratio (as a last resort), a governments may resort to regulation and control of a perceived severe harmful situation.
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