We all want freedom. I see it as a synonym of happiness of power. They all go together. But we have to realize that, with freedom, comes responsibility. In fact, I'd say that one path to freedom is to take responsibility. And one reason we allow freedom to be taken from us is our natural laziness which leads to a tendency to evade responsibility. Not to mention the fact that we see others (the less fortunate, less educated, etc.) as victims and as unable to take responsibility; so it becomes ok to burden the achievers, the producers, the rich, with government "regulation" in order to protect the less fortunate from the more fortunate; which is to protect the irresponsible from the responsible. The trouble with evasion of responsibility is, when we avoid it, when we run from it, when we lose it, we also lose freedom.
For example, I'm a drywall contractor. Under our (formerly) capitalist society, a given homeowner and I find ourselves fully competent and able to take the responsibility and the consequences of freely trading with each other. The homeowner feels confident in his ability to judge whether he should hire me at the agreed price and I feel confident in my ability to judge whether it's worth it to me. We are agreed. He may get other bids or haggle with me or strike some obscure bargain. It's up to the 2 of us. He's free to hire me or not. I'm free to charge whatever I want. But he may not hire me if my price is too high. On the other hand, if I charge too little, I make no money. Over 10 years of contracting this has happened several times and I've even ended up paying money out of pocket a couple of times for the privilege of doing a particular job. I've also periodically had a very high profit margin. It's all on a job by job basis and there is definitely risk involved. But neither of us wants or needs some government bureaucrat or politician stepping in to set the price or conditions or anything else. We're good.
Most people can relate to this, and are willing and confident about taking either role. But the bill of goods we've been sold and, unfortunately, far too many of us have bought into is that there are people who aren't competent, who lack the savvy to deal in such a way. And that's how we end up signing off on the idea of "regulating" the big guy (me) to protect the little guy (the homeowner...wait, HE'S hiring ME. How's that make him the little guy?)
Well, here's the hidden truth: the little guy IS competent and savvy, just like you. He'll figure it out just as you would. And if he's just beginning his learning curve, who are we to step in and trip him up? Mistakes, failures are life's way of teaching him, of making him better.
The trouble is, we want to treat people like children. The hardest thing about raising kids is knowing when to step in and intervene, control, protect. Part of the process is forcing ourselves as parents to hold back and let them make their mistakes and pick themselves up and learn by doing. We can't do it for them. They learn by trying, much more than they learn by us doing it for them, in an effort to protect them from pain and embarrassment.
The same goes for our fellow adults out in the world. It's nice to have concern for them, but we owe them the respect of treating them as our equals. They have the potential to be as great as we are or as we see ourselves to be, even if they have to make some mistakes and experience some pain along the way.
You see, each man wants freedom. And we all must get out of the way and get the government out of the way and let each other take the responsibility that is inseparably attached to that freedom. Remember, "The stronger the wind, the tougher the trees."
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