Government and Economic Arteriosclerosis

Oscar B. Johannsen

[Reprinted from The Gargoyle, August-September 1976]

During the summer the people of New Jersey had an income tax foistered on them despite the patent fact that they did not want it.

A politically oriented judiciary, obviously working hand in glove with the machine politicians in control of the state, decided that the property tax was not a constitutional means for insuring an "efficient and thorough" education for the children. Implied was the demand that a broad based tax be enacted, which meant an income tax, as the sales tax was already in existence.

l That the judiciary exceeded its authority, and was, in effect, legislating or demanding legislation in accordance with its views was bad enough, but it actually had the effrontery when the legislation it wanted was not forthcoming to order the closing of the schools. This gave the legislators the excuse to vote for the tax, which they wanted all the time but were afraid to vote for, fearing the wrath of the voters. Now they could claim that reluctantly they were forced to vote for the income tax.

Powerful pressure groups, as the various teachers' unions were in constant attendance in the halls of the state capitol. These unions' real interest was in salaries rather than the children. The assumption that quality education is a function of the quantity of money expended is too absurd to require refutation, but that is what is implied.

So angered were the people that they resorted to the usual .procedure of actually having a rally in Trenton to demand the repeal of the tax. Special interest groups in the past have organized rallies to obtain favors from the politicians. Rarely, however, do the taxpayers go to the lengths they did to demonstrate their frustration. Whether the people will remain sufficiently angered and united to obtain the repeal is a question which only the future will answer.

What is apparent is that 200 years after the Declaration of Independence, in which the people declared their independence from arbitrary government and taxation without representation, they now have once again arbitrary government and still taxation without representation. The present legislators do not represent the people but rather the pressure groups which put up the money which helps to elect them to office.

The enactment of this income tax is further proof that government at all levels in America is increasingly becoming more autocratic and less responsive to the will of the people. It has been obvious for a long time that the federal government is losing contact with the people. So clear is this that the politicos seeking re-election are berating Washington, D.C. for its interference. Unfortunately, while they decry the growing size and interference of the federal government, when they are elected, they proceed to enact more legislation which encourages still greater government.

That the state governments are also becoming increasingly divorced from the people is shown in such enactments as the passage of ever more taxes, such as the New Jersey income tax, increased control over education, and such acts as the environmental control legislation, all of which puts the individual at the mercy of more bureaucracies.

Local government, while closer to the people, and thus not as likely to obecome too estranged from the people, nonetheless it too, is becoming a power unto itself. Zoning laws inhibit the freedom of the individual to use his property as he wishes. Regulations determine what size his residence may be, what improvements may or may not be made and even often what materials may be used.

Our society is suffering from a situation analogous to arteriosclerosis. Gradually the arteries of free enterprise are being clogged by governmental red tape which threatens to reduce society to an anemic body scarcely resembling the robust and vibrant one of colonial and 19th century days.

What, if anything can be done to reverse this alarming trend? What must be done is to change the philosophy of the people. Today, they still look to government to rectify wrong, forgetting or not knowing that most of the wrongs have been perpetrated by government. Because the government has a monopoly on the production of money, it has increased our paper money to such an extent that prices are almost constantly rising. This has led to people demanding price controls instead of demanding that the government get out of the business of money-creation.

How do you convince people not to look to government to solve problems but rather to demand government to divest itself of the maze of laws and regulations creating this condition of economic arteriosclerosis? First you have to educate yourself. Then you try to educate your friends, and neighbors and relatives. If each one, in turn, becomes educated the area of informed and economically literate people grows. This is the formula which many libertarians have adopted.

It is a good one, but unfortunately most libertarians do not understand man's relationship to the land. The result is that their understanding of government is deficient. They assume, often without adequate investigation that government's sole purpose is protection of life and property and keeping the peace. This leads them up into the difficulty of determining what are the limits of protection of life and property. It is difficult to argue that the government should protect the individual from physical violence and not from drugs and food which is detrimental to his health.

The fact is that the only real purpose of government is to divide up the unequal opportunities of the earth among the equal claimants to them. If that fact is hammered home and understood, the rest of the libertarian philosophy falls into place.

Since people do not understand this, government keeps growing bigger and bigger, the people become increasingly frustrated and disgusted, and taxes grow ever more onerous. Possibly the passage of taxes as the income tax in New Jersey may annoy the people so much that they will start to inquire what are the limits of government and how to achieve the gradual reduction of the power of government. Unless they do, it is fairly certain that America will gradually become just another power, such as exists in Europe, with an individual or coterieor of individuals acting as a dictator. Because of our heritage of freedom, the individual or group may not be called the dictators. Some fancy euphemism may be adopted to gloss over" reality. The dictator may be named -- "The People's Servant" and those associated with him "Freedom's Leaders".

No matter what the nomenclature used, the end result will be the same -- the loss of the freedom of the individual and the growing impoverishment of all.