I read this story about Amish people being fined and harassed for not getting building permits. A few quotes that illustrate the statist mindset really stand out:
"They just go ahead and don't listen to any of the laws that are affecting anybody else. It's quite a problem when you got people next door required to get permits and the Amish don't have to get them"
So, stop attempting to meddle with anyone's private business, you parasite. Yes, I realize it would take away your power and deprive you of your ill-gotten gains, but you're just going to have to put on your big-boy pants and get over it. Tyranny is wrong, no matter the excuse you use.
"You try to work with both sides," Howe said. "(We tell them) this is what we need you to do so everyone can go home and relax."
And if you would get out of people's lives, everyone could still "go home and relax". You are the only one preventing that with your counterfeit "laws". Understand? You are the one in the wrong here, not the Amish homeowners. You are demanding that they lie back and enjoy the rape "just to get it over with". That makes you evil.
"Custom-built homes are allowed in Wisconsin as long as the plans meet code standards, but apparently the Amish don't understand that"
So if a free person refuses to comply with your petty demands, you think it is because they are too stupid or backwards to understand what you are saying? Are you really that pathetically delusional? Oh, you are a bureaucrat, so we all know the answer to that.
"The government must show a strong reason why regulations outweigh religious freedoms"
This quote comes from the guy defending the Amish, and just shows how deeply the statism mythology runs. Instead of being wishy-washy here, he need to educate the nanny-staters: The First Amendment which forbids the government certain authority, dictates that there is no option for your governmental edicts to "outweigh" religious freedom. Not unless cannibalism of live victims or some other rights violation were being committed. That activity is much more likely among the bureaucratic kind, than among the Amish. Nope, here there is no "victim" here other than your ego and illegitimate power over the lives of others. Your desire to control others does not outweigh the right to be left alone by vermin like you.
"Building officials argue permits and codes ensure structural safety, but Amish homes aren't falling down, he said."
Exactly, so the bureaucrats are helping no one and must be told to mind their own business and get an HONEST job.
"People aren't getting hurt," he said
That is the bottom line. No victims, no "crime"; no authority for government interference. None.
"The government must show a strong reason why regulations outweigh religious freedoms"
ReplyDeleteThis is also an illustration of why a sort of normative utilitarianism is a piss-poor substitute for a theory of rights in answering social questions.
As usual, you're so much more succinct than I am.
ReplyDeleteI worked a number of years in the Caribbean, and on one island, the government introduced a devastating 1% tax increase on foreign held businesses.
ReplyDeleteCompletely ignoring nearly every foreign business owner's observation that we would all probably leave to sweeter pastures, the government said "You won't leave over 1%".
They put in the tax, and we left. I remained personally, but my business relocated, and I got to watch the island economically crumble.
One day, the Prime Minister strode into a neighborhood that experienced what the US is facing now - housing prices collapsed, no jobs, etc.
He surrounded himself with the newly unemployed and impoverished locals for a photo shoot with the press, and said....
"See, this is why the government needs the tax.... To help these poor people...."
Yep, indeed!!
This same island was essentially wiped out in a hurricane - the homes, all with government building codes, disappeared. Ironically, most of the survivng homes were built before the government regulations came in...
.... with no surprise. Before regulations, the built the homes to survive. After, they were built to satisfy a bureaucrat. If anyone complained, they simply said "we are following the 'rules'"....
If everyone would follow the example of the Amish and tell the building code tax collectors, in a nice way if possible, “go back to the office and stay the hell out of my business.” They would finally figure out that their attempts at robbery by coercion will not succeed and then, just maybe, they would go out and find gainful non-interventionist employment elsewhere.
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