Lesson 25- If the State is Strong Enough to do Something Good for You, It Can Also Do Something Bad to You3

The State controls its people through providing good sanctions and bad sanctions.  Unfortunately though, many "good sanctions" such as Civil Rights, public education and gun control can eventually take away people’s rights or money.  For instance, Civil Rights are a great idea.  I believe that everyone should be treated equally.  However, the “good sanctions” the government has imposed actually take away our freedom of speech.  One could get into big trouble by making a simple, careless comment or joke, not intending to make it offensive.  Public education is not a great sanction because it forces everyone to pay for schools whether they are a part of the system or not.  Elderly people are taxed to pay for public schools.  Parents who don’t send their kids to public school still have to pay into the system.  In addition, people who own a second home have to pay taxes on all properties they own, even though their children will never go to those schools.  It is not fair to force people to pay for something they will never benefit from.  Also, public schools are basically a one-size-fits-all program.  It is geared to be pretty much the same everywhere you go.  If a child does not learn the way the schools teach, that child is bound to not succeed and may be labeled an idiot even though he or she may be a genius and simply learns differently.  Finally, there comes the fun, interesting topic of gun laws.  These are set up as bad sanctions.  But why?  Just because someone owns a gun does not mean they are going to kill every person on site.  Think about it, if everyone owned a gun, there would probably be tremendously less shootings than we see today.  In fact, the states with the most crime problems are the states with the strictest gun laws, while the states with the least amount of gun laws tend to have a much lower crime rate.  If you were a robber, would you target someone with a gun or go for the helpless person without one?  This is a complete violation of the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms!  In conclusion, it can become extremely frightening once the state has enough power to do "good" things for you because they always have unintended consequences or  require plundering one group to benefit another.