Do You believe in the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP)?

For those that have never heard of it, you’ll see later why it’s “not” something the two major political parties and mainstream media want us to talk about or discuss its merits.   

The NAP, as it is often referred to, is a philosophical legal concept which precludes individuals from harming other individuals or their justly acquired property, with the exception of protecting themselves and/or others and their justly acquired property from someone else who is breaking the NAP.  Simply, you’re not supposed to harm others or their property and if you do, they have the legal right of self-defense to stop you.

This is actually the underlying basis of most modern-day legal systems in our world. So of course, you believe in it, right?  Most laws are based on this ethical principle of not harming one another called “mala in se” laws and when people do break one of the laws we classify them as a criminal.    

From Wikipedia: Malum in se (plural Mala in se) is a Latin phrase meaning wrong or evil in itself. The phrase is used to refer to conduct assessed as sinful or inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct. It is distinguished from malum prohibitum, which is wrong only because it is prohibited by political mandate.   

A judicial citation: An innately immoral act, regardless of whether it is forbidden by law. Examples include adultery, theft, and murder. See, e.g. United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1998).

Now here is the problem or really a dilemma with the NAP.  It doesn’t necessarily apply to those individuals who represent and/or work for the nation-state, i.e. the government.  The nation-state can simply enact mala in se and mala prohibitum laws and use force and coercion to enforce them.  All your drug laws, vices such as prostitution, gambling, and alcohol, DUI, licensure laws such as driver and real estate licensing, permits, income taxes, public education, property taxes, etc. are all laws that break the NAP. They must use the force of coercion to enforce them or the Citizens would simply ignore them. Of course, the government will fine or incarcerate those that break the various laws, hence the use of force or coercion as the physical means of enforcement.  I think it is pretty evident that everyone agrees that malum in se laws should be rigorously enforced but malum prohibitum laws is where the debates and differences of opinion really become apparent. 

Their enforcement requires the use of force or coercion by those in the nation-state to carry out the politically derived mandates. They must physical steal or coerce people into giving them the money it requires to fulfil the governments social policies.  

It’s not OK for an individual to break the NAP, but those who form the largest or most powerful political party and their employees can and do. I’m not here to try to determine right and wrong at this point or what laws we should or shouldn’t have, I’m here is help people understand the principle and how it affects our lives. Later I share what a few of our founding fathers said.   

Every tax, fine or regulatory fee is a breach of the NAP because it takes money or property from those who justly earned it and thus it “Rightfully” belongs to and gives it those that didn’t justly earn it and thus it does NOT rightfully belong to. This is the ethical foundation of our “Inalienable Rights” and why the Citizens required a Bill of Rights be created before they would ratify the U.S. Constitution.  These rights were specifically to stop those in government from taking the Citizens money and enacting malum prohibitum laws. 

Of course, those in government have twisted the very words in the Bill of Rights and Constitution where today government just about goes unstrained in both size and scope of powers. Instead of check and balances between the three branches, they are either rubber-stamping one another’s decisions and actions or suing one another when they breach or overstep their constitutionally mandated scope of powers. The various branches of our government and those individuals in the bureaucracy are in constant legal battles. The Federal government alone cost taxpayers over $4 trillion “annually” and requires over 110 different taxes and regulatory fees to pay for it all. 

To give you an idea of what our founding fathers set out to establish with our founding documents, all one must do is to read a few of the quotes of the first three Presidents.  

Thomas Jefferson, the Third President “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

George Washington, the First President “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

John Adams, the Second President “You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.

One of the most important rights is that of “property” protected by our Constitution as well as the NAP.   How have we gone from a society set up to protect our property and money from being confiscated by criminals and the government, to one where the government is now the greatest confiscator? The greater questions are 1. can government be restrained from confiscating to much of the majority’s wealth and if so 2. how do we do it when it starts to cause such great problems for the majority and our society as a whole?

Bankruptcy or Prosperity

As the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) on Wednesday the 31st of July, 2019 lowered the discount rate to 2% to 2.25%, 1/4 point lower from 2.25% to 2.50% I couldn’t help but think of the real underlying cause. The lowering of this rate even a 1/4 point indicates the greatest economy in U.S. history as President Trump and no one else is claiming, because it’s simply far from the truth. This has been one of the worst financial recoveries in U.S. history and we are really really far from being out of the proverbial hot water.

First, if the economy was booming as Trump triumphantly decries, the FRB would still be trying to normalize rates by continuing to raise them. Nor would they have recently stopped selling the over $4 trillion in Treasuries and MBS’s on their balance sheet as they were doing. This is the actions of an FRB trying to preempt a recession, also understanding major components within the Treasury Yield Curve remains inverted, another reliable indicator of a coming recession.

The concept and legislative enactments of allowing Government to both print and borrow money is a “really” horrible idea, that will eventually bankrupt our society. The fact that no society in history has been able to curtain their government from bankrupting their society is surely evidence of how horrible an idea this has been.

If it were a unique situation, it would be one thing, but the fact it is one of the more common occurrences prompting both long term depressions and total social failures should give us a clue to their devastating effects. Almost every major industrialized government in the world today has experienced this. In 1989, the United Soviet Socialists Republic became the largest government to have done this to their people, so big and mighty does not equate to Prosperity. You may not know it but the Roman Empire even bankrupted its government and society.     

With government printing and or borrowing the fact that a generation or two may escape the catastrophic results does not limit the pain for many, as the resultant periods of inflation ravish especial the young and old with low and fixed incomes. Thinking that a group of people are any more responsible than an individual is obviously foolish and one could argue just the opposite.     

Understand that government is supposed to be a projection of our own humanity as a community. An individual surely cannot print their own money nor borrow without limits, yet we have allowed our politicos to do both on our behalf.  

Because of the long-term catastrophic results, there is no justifiable reason, not even to fund a war or increased military defense.  Matter of fact, a bankrupted society becomes an easier target than does an underdefended society especially from being overthrown from within. The fact that there are now many underdefended countries that have survived over long periods also negates this rationale. 

From my own study, especially in the more modern times it appears to me governments are now taking positions with groups of other countries working together to overthrow heads or State and destabilize various countries who they have economic or social conflicts with, so mankind is really not doing the mass evasion strategy that requires massive expenditures any more.  WWII was supposed to be the war to end all wars as also told to us about WWI. Then you have the ill effects of the guns or butter principle as the U.S. and other big defense spenders are experiencing today. Will we ever learn?    

I could only think of one potential cause to allow a government to expand the money supply via borrowing or printing. If someone were to invent a low-cost energy source requiring an initial high capital investment that just could not be funded by the private sector, that would be a reasonable use of the funds because it would be a one-time investment and it would lower the costs of energy making the payback of the investment plausible. Most economists today understand both U.S. and world debt today will never be paid back and as such, and thus more printing and borrowing is only differing eventual default.

So, if you wonder why the U.S. is now the largest debtor nation in world history with approximately 1/3 of our society living at or near the poverty line, simply ask a member of Congress and wait for the proverbial baloney and nonsense to come spewing out of their mouths. They have always been very good at coming up with a rationale for both printing and borrowing money and their pensions and personal growth in wealth are the real proof of why they do it. The numbers do not lie though that prove printing and borrowing money by the government are bad for the majority.

This article gives some of the economic facts on the U.S. as it relates to borrowing and or printing money. https://www.faithandfreedom.com/the-path-to-prosperity-or-bankruptcy-staggering-facts-on-americas-rising-debt/