Either each person has full ownership of themselves (so long as they don’t infringe on others), or they have zero ownership.
The Canadian government has socialist elements, and I wouldn’t mind and would even choose to live in a society that had more. As far as I know, the only freedoms it takes away are those that infringe on other people...considering that human beings are social animals, many or most of our decisions do affect other people. (I have not researched this. Feel free to prove me wrong or enlighten me on other aspects.)
The problem for me—speaking as a Canadian—is that there’s no choice about it. To be honest Canada’s a pretty good place to live. Despite the personality-disordered weirdo we have running the place, it’s relatively free; decent amounts of freedom of speech, stable currency, only moderate corruption in our police forces, and greater economic liberty than the US (that’s right—Soviet Canuckistan is less government run than the US) - my biggest upsets are Gun Control, the state of Domestic Violence Law, and the ‘Human Rights’ Tribunals which censor speech critical of protected groups. The worst thing our Monster in Parliament is trying to do is enact the equivalent of the Patriot Act, ten years too late.
The fundamental problem, though, is the lack of choice to begin with—immigration has huge barriers, and it’s not like there’s room for any more countries. We’re all forced into the coutnry we live in, and I suspect that the real civilizing force is the decency of regular people, who manage despite the government.
It’s like the post office, fifty years ago—they delivered the mail, they were adequate, but they weren’t performing anywhere near the level that was possible. Nobody complained (much) because they were accustomed to it. As soon as private delivery companies entered the scene.the post office had to shape up fast.
If I had the choice, I might choose to enter a socialist collective of sorts—at the very least, I’d want to live in an incorporated city which took care of the roads and sewers. The same thing should go for countries; nobody forces me to live in Calgary and accept the local tax burden, it wouldn’t be right. Similarly it isn’t right to force people to pay taxes in a country, when they’re deeply opposed to certain elements of government.
Keep in mind, I’m not just complaining without a solution in mind; there are workable solutions that would pay for things such as national defence, while subjecting government to the integrity of the private market. Poly-centric law is one example, though I think having a Corporate Monarchy would be more workable here in Canada.
The Canadian government has socialist elements, and I wouldn’t mind and would even choose to live in a society that had more. As far as I know, the only freedoms it takes away are those that infringe on other people...considering that human beings are social animals, many or most of our decisions do affect other people. (I have not researched this. Feel free to prove me wrong or enlighten me on other aspects.)
The problem for me—speaking as a Canadian—is that there’s no choice about it. To be honest Canada’s a pretty good place to live. Despite the personality-disordered weirdo we have running the place, it’s relatively free; decent amounts of freedom of speech, stable currency, only moderate corruption in our police forces, and greater economic liberty than the US (that’s right—Soviet Canuckistan is less government run than the US) - my biggest upsets are Gun Control, the state of Domestic Violence Law, and the ‘Human Rights’ Tribunals which censor speech critical of protected groups. The worst thing our Monster in Parliament is trying to do is enact the equivalent of the Patriot Act, ten years too late.
The fundamental problem, though, is the lack of choice to begin with—immigration has huge barriers, and it’s not like there’s room for any more countries. We’re all forced into the coutnry we live in, and I suspect that the real civilizing force is the decency of regular people, who manage despite the government.
It’s like the post office, fifty years ago—they delivered the mail, they were adequate, but they weren’t performing anywhere near the level that was possible. Nobody complained (much) because they were accustomed to it. As soon as private delivery companies entered the scene.the post office had to shape up fast.
If I had the choice, I might choose to enter a socialist collective of sorts—at the very least, I’d want to live in an incorporated city which took care of the roads and sewers. The same thing should go for countries; nobody forces me to live in Calgary and accept the local tax burden, it wouldn’t be right. Similarly it isn’t right to force people to pay taxes in a country, when they’re deeply opposed to certain elements of government.
Keep in mind, I’m not just complaining without a solution in mind; there are workable solutions that would pay for things such as national defence, while subjecting government to the integrity of the private market. Poly-centric law is one example, though I think having a Corporate Monarchy would be more workable here in Canada.
Anectodal evidence: In France, the post office is much worse since they have competition.