In his piece, Dr. Wolf contrasts a positive conception of freedom as freedoms of action (as long as one doesn't violate another's right), and contrasts that with the leftists' view of "freedom" as forms of entitlements to goods and services that must be produced by another:
Freedom is man's power to exercise his own faculties as he chooses as long as he prohibits no other man from doing the same. Law exists to ensure that no man takes another man's life -- other than in self-defense -- or deprives him of his liberty or property. If it is wrong for one man to plunder, then surely it is equally wrong for a group of 20 men to plunder. And if it's wrong for 20 men to plunder, then it's equally wrong for 100 million men to plunder -' even if they have codified it into law.In contrast, the false notion of "freedom" contains the seeds of its own destruction because of the inherent self-contradiction:
Liberals say that man is not free until he is free from want and so the government must guarantee his comforts -- everything from housing to health care, cellphones to sustenance. But this notion inherently contradicts itself. For the government to provide for all wants, or even just the important ones -- and our leaders know the difference -- they must plunder the property of other would-be free Americans. Worse yet, by attaching strings to every giveaway, they plunder the liberty of those on whom they lavish their largess. This notion of freedom destroys freedom.Dr. Wolf then applies his analysis to both the ObamaCare health plan and to Obama's recently-announced "jobs plan".
He summarizes the basic issue as follows: "...[S]omething of liberty dies with each attempt to coerce a free man, especially when it comes with false promises of prosperity, be they jobs or health care."
I recommend reading the full text of "Hey Loser, Get a Job or Else".
And I greatly appreciate him citing FIRM and my recent PajamasMedia piece, "Let's Model ObamaJobs After ObamaCare!"
