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 THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 607, February 13, 2011 "Happy Anniversary!"
Exclusive to The Libertarian Enterprise Genesis told us what it was like without our advanced technology: men worked outdoors and sweated all the time and women were constantly pregnant. We're much richer now. Lots of people can work indoors where it's cool when it's hot outside, and warm when it's cold. Women are freed from excessive procreation by pharmacology and surgery. The free market—political and economic liberty—is what created our wealth. It created our advanced technology (although I'm still pretty miffed that I don't have a flying car and a disintegrator pistol). Advanced technology has influenced sex roles and the relationships between men and women. All of them would have worked out better if the State had kept its nose out of things—which it just can't seem to do. It used to be men were outside behind a mule and women were inside scrubbing and cooking and sewing. Ungood. How long were their days? Ten hours, or more? Doubleplus ungood. Then along comes all the goodies technology gave us, and the next thing we know the workdays were shorter, a lot of them were inside, and we had more leisure. The more intelligent women (the ones who didn't turn into Peg Bundy, who spent her time eating bon-bons and watching TV), with all that extra time on their hands, wanted out of the house. It was a natural evolution. It was an evolution warped by the State. Wages stopped going up in 1973, and every bit of it was caused by the State interfering in the economy. If they had continued to go up as they should have, I wouldn't be surprised if the average salary was $70,000 a year. Had that happened, it would have been possible for a married couple to each work part-time and have a nice middle-class existence. There would be plenty of spare time, they wouldn't have to give their kids over to the public schools, they could have raised them as they see fit. Instead, both spouses have to work full-time, if not more, just to make ends meet, and those ends sometimes won't meet when children are involved. Children are oftentimes given to daycare when several months old, and too soon the day comes when they're given to the public schools for 12 years (and what does it take 12 years to learn, anyway?). Things have now gotten so skewed 40% of babies are born outside of marriage and 25% of children are on food stamps. Who do I blame these things on? The State. Leftism feminism enshrined in law, Affirmative Action, the crushing economic burden of family and children since middle-class jobs are shrinking and taxes are ever-growing, the State growing like the Blob...not one of these things is the result of political and economic liberty. Some people blame these things on conspiracies. I don't. I blame them on stupidity, incompetence, blindness, and good intentions gone bad. That is, on the State. The contrast is so stark I sometimes have a problem believing it. No State interference: high wages, part-time work, a high standard of living, good relationships between men and women, less divorce, more children. The State interfering in everything: low wages, more than full-time work, a lowered standard of living, damaged relationships between men and women, more divorce, and fewer children. It amazes me how some people call for more State interference. They don't understand it's poison. I always wonder how things will be in the future. More decadent, I'd guess, as the State continues to grow and society and civilization continue to recede. Then after things bottom out...maybe they'll get better.
TLE AFFILIATE
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