Lies the government told you by Andrew Napolitano (best e reader for epub TXT) 📗

monopoly. “A ‘not guilty’ verdict was sustained by the U.S. District Court . . . [t]he court expressed doubt that the U.S. had the right to monopolize transportation of mail.”24 Still, Post Office revenues continued to drop until Congress was forced to give the Post Office permission to drop prices to five cents a letter. And later, Spooner was responsible for Congress agreeing to drop the price once again, which earned him the name “Father of the Three-Cent Stamp.”25 This entrepreneur had been able to create a successful and profitable company that charged almost one-third the price that the government charged for its mail delivery and created a situation where the government was forced to compete and reach prices that people were willing to pay.

Of course, once the government regained its monopoly, the price of mail increased constantly with no end in sight, and the Post Office is no longer even profitable, running massive deficits. Still the government claims that it would not be possible to provide mail service through a private company. Today, it is unlawful to charge the same or less than the Post Office to deliver any mail—unlawful to compete with the government.

R.I.P., Personal Responsibility

The magic of this idea of affordable housing, cheap automobiles, mail, and railroads, the idea that everyone deserves something from another, has resulted in a total depreciation of the idea of personal responsibility, an idea that is at the basis of America’s values. The government does not have its own money to give away, but it loves to reallocate resources. So when the government is using taxes to pay for mistakes made by big businesses as well as by the little guys, it is only taking from those who have managed not to make gigantic mistakes and giving it to save those who have. And, of course, the government justifies its actions, blaming the big businesses and deflecting blame from itself and the little taxpayers who bought houses they could ill afford. And this is where personal responsibility has lost itself.

President George W. Bush asked for, received, and signed the American Dream Downpayment Act in 2005. Though I have always believed that the American Dream involves hard work and dedication, apparently in 2005, it was for sale to the lowest bidder. This Act in essence gave the government the authority to provide those in the lowest income brackets with down payments on homes that they could not afford. No longer did people have to save for the American Dream; the government decided to give it away, but of course only to those who had not worked hard and not saved from their incomes until they could afford to buy. That is perhaps the most stupefying consequence of this Act, because free down payments meant more people could buy, which in turn meant more demand, which in turn meant housing prices soared. So those who had saved enough to buy a house no longer had enough, because prices had climbed, and therefore so did the amount required for a down payment from those who did not qualify for the American Dream.

Still, once the housing bubble burst and the system collapsed, no one wanted to take the blame. Those who had bought houses they could not afford ran to the government for help, clamoring about the unfairness of the system. Those who invested in mortgage-backed securities and lost billions cried that they needed money from the government or else they would collapse, and the market would spiral out of control. The government blamed laissez-faire capitalists and the greedy bankers with their grubby hands. There was blame to go around, but no one would take it. And not only would they not accept it, but they also wanted payment from the taxpayers—from those who could still afford to pay the taxes. Of course, the government gave them all money.

The lesson learned was that as long as you did not take responsibility for your actions, then you would receive more money. The government bailed out the banks, it bailed out the people who could not afford their mortgages, and it continues to bail them out. The American Dream, which once rested on personal responsibility and hard work, now rests on getting the most for the least amount of work. And if the climate continues this way, pretty soon there will be nothing left of America or the Dream.

Conclusion

Before you finish reading this book, return to those quotations at the beginning. Did I prove my case? If you believe in God, you believe He is Truth. But a Roman governor asks if anyone can know the truth, and a modern-day American vice president marvels at its debasement by the government. And two philosophers claim we are ripe for being plucked into the baskets of the deceivers.

As I finish writing this book, the country is consumed with a great public debate over proposals for the federal government to take over and manage the delivery of health care to every person in America.

During that debate, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) was disciplined by his colleagues in the House of Representatives because he called President Obama a liar during the President’s address to a joint session of Congress. The statement that the President made, which provoked the Congressman’s ill-timed outburst, claimed that illegal aliens would not receive health care benefits under the President’s government option proposal, which essentially establishes a Medicare-type program for everyone in America under the age of sixty-five.

When the Supreme Court last looked at government attempts to deny social benefits to certain groups, the Court held that the Constitution protects all “persons”; persons are citizens as well as strangers, people born here and people who end up here, people here lawfully and people here unlawfully; and in the area of social services, whatever benefits the government makes available to the general public cannot be kept away from a class of persons based on their immigration status or that of their parents.

Did the President know this when he stated