The essential characteristic of government is organized force…. Organized force can … inhibit, prohibit, penalize, restrain, suppress. Organized force cannot be an agency for creativity … discovery, invention, intuition, inquisitiveness, insight.
[Consequently,] we can logically deduce the proper role of government by merely asking: What in good conscience should be prohibited, penalized, suppressed? The answer has been given in the moral codes: the destructive actions of men such as violence, fraud, predation, misrepresentation…. Limit government to this policing function, for here is its principled role.
The balance of the message comes just as clearly: never use force to achieve a creative end, be it housing, power and light, education, medicine, welfare, security, prosperity, charity. Leave these desirable achievements to the creativity which can flourish among men only when they are free!
Continue reading ➤ Governments Are Failing at Their Most Basic Duties—While Promising Free Stuff
