A Coin Too Many
Often, when debating some new statist restriction on our lives, I am confronted with a simple argument: “Why do you care? It is not such a big thing that they installed a few more cameras down the street. That in itself doesn’t pose some kind of Orwellian menace! Stop being so paranoid!” In short, they argue, while the given restriction is perhaps a restriction on liberty, it is so minor as not worth being concerned about.
Such erstwhile individuals have always reminded me of an old joke that probably already had a long, gray beard when I was a small child in Soviet Russia:
- “How do you defeat a karate master? Offer him as many small coins as you can shove into a hat before he says “stop”. Of course, to get the money, he must catch the hat – with his head, as you drop it from the fifth floor.”
The (rather unfunny) Soviet joke implied that the karate master will not be able to track the moment where just a handful of coins becomes a weighty weapon, and will be mislead by his own avarice into accepting a strike to the head with the coin-bag.
To a libertarian, every new statist restriction is similar to a coin from this joke. If you’re a non-libertarian who wants to understand how libertarians think, I suggest you do this with actual coins. Get yourself a sizable bag, and some coins a shekel each (to our American readers: a single shekel is worth about as much as a dime) and let’s play a little educational game.
Now, start contemplating these statist restrictions we’ve started talking about. Count off every government rule, regulation, and law – even those you agree with – except laws against murder, theft, and fraud, of course. Let’s start together:
Israel has a national ID card law. Cameras are being installed in our major cities. And in our schools. The government bans gambling – and censors Internet access to block gambling sites (that’s worth at least two coins in our little game). There’s a sin tax on amplifiers, cigarettes, alcohol, and automobiles, designed to reduce their consumption) Throw four more coins into the bag. Homeschooling is conditional on nearly impossible licensing rules. So is private education for most sectors. So is ownership of a centerfire rifle.
Hairdressing requires an expensive license. It takes six times more time to jump through the hoops needed to start a business in Israel than it does in America. The law regulates how much water businesses need to serve their clients for free )(at least one glass) and what safety devices you’re allowed to fix to the front of your car (jeep-style grates are not allowed. Not even on jeeps). Digital radio is still illegal. A tax is charged on every television set. By the time we’re done adding coins – remember one coin for every rule, law, and regulation – you would fill a tourist backpack with them. Now try and lift that on your back!
Some of these regulations are minor, and others are more important. Some are more invasive than others. But what you would miss, in discussing any individual restriction, every tiny invasion of personal liberty – is that they are part of a context, a larger whole – that those shekels are part of a large and pre-existing bag of coins that you’re carrying on your bag already.
The solution is not – as the statists would have it – to add one more coin. It is not even – as more moderate statists would have it – to refuse to add coins and keep the heavy bag on your back. It is to rip the bag open and start scarfing coins out by the handful. Only in that way can you meaningfully lighten your load. Only in that way can we be free.
~~ Boris Karpa
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