The world’s least-free country

Here’s a quiz: Which is the freest country on earth? The answer’s easy. It’s the United States. Ask anyone. And why are we the freest? Not because we’re the richest. Long before we became the world’s richest nation we still regarded ourselves as the freest, and millions flocked to our shores to enjoy that freedom. The reasons we are free are: First, because of the philosophical basis upon which this country was founded. It is assumed that individuals have rights, e.g., free speech, the right to bear arms, the right of a jury trial before our peers should the government try to imprison us, seize our property, or deprive us of our lives, etc. Second, we have a Constitution that limits the powers of a central government to intrude into our lives.

And third, our rights have been enshrined in the First 10 Amendments to our Constitution.

Many other countries, like England and Canada, also have their own Bill of Rights, but those rights are at the pleasure of the government. It says so right in their laws. So they are not “unalienable” rights. Only our country, in all of history, was founded on the assumption that the individual has rights that exist apart from the government and not at its pleasure. Then, in 1868, the Constitution was amended to say that even the states cannot violate our unalienable rights. Pretty powerful stuff. These things form the basis of our freedom and are the reasons why the United States is the freest country on earth.

So if we can identify the freest country, can we also identify that which is the least free? I’ve tried to find a qualitative way to make that determination, but it’s difficult, because no country has a constitution that guarantees tyranny. Even the constitutions of the old Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China read as if those countries were free. You’d never have guessed that what happened under Stalin and Mao could have happened, just from reading those documents. (Of course, you’d never have guessed we once enslaved a huge portion of our own citizens or screwed the Indians out of a large portion of a continent by reading our Constitution. But that’s another story.)

What I’m getting at is it’s hard to determine qualitatively which is the least free country on earth. So I decided to see if there is a quantitative way to measure it. I found two. First, the country with the most laws would be a candidate for that which is least free. Laws regulate people, so the country which is the least free would surely regulate its people the most. Second, the country with the greatest percentage of its population in jail would also be a candidate for the least free, for obvious reasons. And, if, by chance, some country not only had the most laws but also had the largest percentage of its own population behind bars, we’d at least have a candidate for the least free country on the planet.

So which country has the most laws regulating its citizenry? After looking high and low I discovered that the country with the most laws—not just today, but in all of history is...geez Louise, it’s the United States. We not only have the most laws in all of history, but we also turn out more new laws and regulations to manage our people every single year than most countries turn out in decades.

How can it be that the world’s freest country needs more laws to tell its people what to do than the Soviet Union, Red China, Nazi Germany, or any two-bit banana republic dictatorship? And it’s not like we’ve always had so many laws. Most of them are new. In 1814, when President Madison and the Congress fled Washington, DC, ahead of the invading English troops bent on arson, they took the papers of the federal government with them. It was easy. They loaded all the laws and regulations into a few boxes and left. This was all the federal government had generated to regulate us in the first 38 years of our existence. Today, Congress and anonymous bureaucrats generate more laws and regulations than that in minutes.

Maybe we should consider the other criterion. Which country imprisons the highest percentage of its own citizens? Let’s see, Russia’s up there. And so is the Union of South Africa. And there are some little potentates as we see in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Hmm, but who leads the list. On, no! Folks, you’re not going to like this. It’s...it’s...the United States, again, heading the list of least free countries. The prime reason is the War on Drugs, the war waged against our country’s own citizens “for their own good.”

When I presented my results to others, some said if you obey the laws, you have nothing to worry about and you’ll still be free. I pointed out that that’s the case in every country. Toe the line and you won’t get in trouble. If the women in Afghanistan wore their burkas and didn’t drive or get an education, then by that definition they could still be free. I also pointed out that Jews in Nazi Germany, blacks in the postbellum South, and many American Indians did toe the line and tried to be good citizens but they still got screwed. So obeying the law doesn’t guarantee freedom.

Another said, despite all our laws, we have safeguards in that we have a jury system and that those laws are filtered through juries. I pointed out that more and more agencies regulate us without juries. E.g., the IRS, family courts, OSHA, the EPA, etc. don’t allow juries. And where juries are allowed the courts exclude people who realize they can nullify bad laws. This is hardly a recipe for freedom.

So, somehow, I have arrived at a paradox. What, on paper, would appear to be the freest society in the world appears, in practice, to be among the most oppressive.
Does this bother anyone besides me?

We actually were not that far apart in agreeing. From your earlier post: We agree that there is need for reduction of government, the end of government control of public education, etc You admitted something is wrong with public education but when I used it in my own argument, I was out of line.

you suggested that those who disagree with you do so only because they don't know the TRUTH that you know...Never said that. One more time...we were having a discussion where people were voicing different opinions. You do know what opinions are don't you? We are entitled to them in the freest country in the world. You keep forgetting that.

you should stop suggesting that someone is a dimwitt just because they disagree with you...

Something you should try for yourself.

think you also knew that "guys" is a generic term....

Where I come from guys are men and girls are women. Don't know what they do where you live.

as you are the one who asserted that when a majority disagree with your view, it is because they are not well educated. That was arrogant, period.

Actually no it wasn't. I grew up in a small town and only have a high school education...public school at that. We did, however, learn history, studied the Constitution, and I have studied and read continuously on many subjects my whole adult life. Children graduating the last 10 years or so have been indoctrined into feel good socialism...you touched on the failing government school system yourself.

I would like to think you misunderstood my posts rather than think you're having a bad day.

Get over the fact that someone can examine the facts, know the Constitution, know the intent of the Founding Fathers, have been educated in good schools, and disagree with you

Here are some additional facts to examine that are not taught in "good schools." Mind you, some of these points I do not agree with, some I know little about, some I see as blatant waste, but taken in its entirety shows how we have been drifting away from the intent of our Founding Fathers for most of this century.

How the Ten Planks of the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO were Accomplished in U.S.A.
By Dr. Ed Fields from his "The Truth At Last" series

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #1:
ABOLITION OF PROPERTY (Rights) IN LAND AND APPLICATION OF ALL RENTS (Taxes) OF LAND TO PUBLIC PURPOSES.
Democracy: Zoning
School tax (from Property "rents").
Equitable interest in land, no allodial title.
No free holders.
Accomplished:14th Amend U.S. Constitution 1868. Title 17 health & safety code.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #2:
A HEAVY PROGRESSIVE OR GRADUATED INCOME TAX.
Democracy: 501 (c)(3) corporate churches/businesses.
Income tax -- IRS (Title 26) Fed. tax can take up to 88% of income.
Social Security.
Public property (state police powers).
Accomplished: 16th Amend U.S. Const. 1913.
Social Security Act 1936.
JHR 192, 1933.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #3:
ABOLITION OF ALL RIGHT TO INHERITANCE.
Democracy: Limited inheritance via inheritance tax.
Accomplished: Estate tax 1916.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #4:
CONFISCATION OF THE PROPERTY OF EMIGRANTS AND REBELS.
Democracy: Confiscation of drug-merchant property "War on Drugs".
IRS confiscation of private property without due process.
RICO Act (Racketeering Influenced & Corrupt Organizations).
Imprisonment of "terrorist" and those who write or speak against the government.
Accomplished: Public Law 99-570 1986. Established 1970. Sedition Act 1798 also used in 1940's and 1988.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #5:
CENTRALIZATION OF CREDIT IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE, BY MEANS OF A NATIONAL BANK WITH STATE CAPITAL AND AN EXCLUSIVE MONOPOLY.
Democracy: Federal Reserve Banks. All local banks use credit & are members of Fed. Reserve System and regulated by the U.S. Govt. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Accomplished: Federal Reserve Act 1913. Federal Reserve Act 1933.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #6:
CENTRALIZATION OF THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORT IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE.
Democracy: Interstate Commerce Commission.
Federal Communication Commission (FCC).
U.S. Civil Aeronautics. Federal Aviation Agency (FAA).
Accomplished: ICC Act 1887. The Commissions Act 1934. Est. 1938. Est.1958.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #7:
EXTENSION OF FACTORIES AND INSTRUMENTS OF PRODUCTION OWNED BY THE STATE, THE BRINGING INTO CULTIVATION OF WASTELANDS, AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL, GENERALLY WITH A COMMON PLAN.
Democracy: Anti-trust Acts.
Department of Commerce and Labor.
Department of Agriculture.
Dept. of Interior (Bureau of Land Management
Forest Service
Bureau of Reclamation
Bureau of Mines
National Park Service
Fish and Wildlife Service
Accomplished: Established 1902. Established 1903. Established 1862. Established 1849.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #8:
EQUAL LIABILITY OF ALL LABOR (for the National Debt). ESTABLISHMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ARMIES, ESPECIALLY FOR AGRICULTURE.
Democracy: "Two income families" because of inflation and National debt
Woman's Suffrage
Affirmative action
Socialist Unions
International Workers of the World (Chicago)
Accomplished: Women in the work place 1920's 19th Amend, U.S. Const.1920. Civil Rights Act 1964. Established 1869. Established 1905.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #9:
COMBINATION OF AGRICULTURE WITH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, GRADUAL ABOLITION OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRY BY A MORE EQUABLE DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION OVER THE COUNTRY.
Democracy: Farms lost to "the suburbs" and manufacturing/ commercialism.
Perverted technology/corporate farms.
National farmers Alliance and Industrial Union.
Accomplished:
1880-1990's (Title 17 "Zoning"). Took hold 1910-1990's/ 1870's-1880's.

COMMUNIST MANIFESTO PLANK #10:
FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. ABOLITION OF CHILDREN'S FACTORY LABOR IN ITS PRESENT FORM. COMBINATION OF EDUCATION WITH INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION, ETC.
Democracy: State run, tax financed schools.
Socialized/progressive education.
Child Labor Act, Pennsylvania. Children now work with State approval.
Abolition of private education.
Accomplished: Horace Mann 1837-1848. John Dewey 1870-1910. Established 1848.

...In the old days [it ran], before the glorious Revolution, London was not the beautiful city that we know today. It was a dark, dirty, miserable place where hardly anybody had enough to eat and where hundreds and thousands of poor people had no boots on their feet and not even a roof to sleep under. Children no older than you had to work twelve hours a day for cruel masters who flogged them with whips if they worked too slowly and fed them on nothing but stale breadcrusts and water. But in among all this terrible poverty there were just a few great big beautiful houses that were lived in by rich men who had as many as thirty servants to look after them. These rich men were called capitalists. They were fat, ugly men with wicked faces, like the one in the picture on the opposite page. You can see that he is dressed in a long black coat which was called a frock coat, and a queer, shiny hat shaped like a stovepipe, which was called a top hat. This was the uniform of the capitalists, and no one else was allowed to wear it. The capitalists owned everything in the world, and everyone else was their slave. They owned all the land, all the houses, all the factories, and all the money. If anyone disobeyed them they could throw them into prison, or they could take his job away and starve him to death. When any ordinary person spoke to a capitalist he had to cringe and bow to him, and take off his cap and address him as 'Sir'. The chief of all the capitalists was called the King, and --

Let's go guys, a bravo to the first who identifies title & author

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.