The Savage Republican

We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life — physical, intellectual, and moral life.
But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. This process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course.
Life, faculties, production—in other words, individuality, liberty, property — this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

From this premise, Bastiat goes on to prove that government is formed to protect the rights of each individual. That when government starts to recognize groups, then there are no longer individual rights, but group priviledges. And at that point, you have groups that raise up to either ensure that their interests are protected or to take more from another group. And we have the descent into democracy where the majority rules over the minority, or sometimes vice versa, and the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle erosion of your individual rights. And consequently property rights. Eminent domain is the hot property rights topic. And how did we get to that point? Slowly, easily... and steadily. What would have resulted in riots a century ago is now regarded as business as usual. When your land can not be developed, when you When your money is forcibly taken from you via taxes, you have had your time, your effort and your property taken from you. And on a larger scale, we have the disaster that the collectivists have forced on General Motors. And on a large scale, what you see happening to General Motors mirrors perfectly the state of the American dependency state (Katrina and the socialist, leftwing hellhole disaster called New Orleans as prima facie evidence). And it comes back to you. You are going to pay for it. All of it. Every penny. How do I know? From my radical lefty friend who admits that the unfunded liability of Social Security and Medicare exists. But he claims it's ONLY $20,000,000,000,000 (not the $60,000,000,000,000-$80,000,000,000,000 that reputable economists tell). And this leftist's solution to the problem? After much thought and reflection and many calculations? A 100% inheritance tax. Total estate confiscation (BTW, the elimination of all inheritance laws is one of the ten points of the Communist Manifesto .I'd also recommend reading down the article and comparing the ten points with the Democratic party platform. Also read how a goodly portion of the ten points has already been implemented). When the WWII generation dies, the government takes all their money. He tries to throw you off the trail by calling it "their childrens' money". So what? It's still someone elses money. NOT the government's.

General Motors doesn't have the force of law behind it to force it's customers to buy it's cars and trucks to pay the huge burden of obligations that have been forced on it by it's unions and with the collboration of the government. Government DOES have the force of law to force YOU to pay for it's follies.

Now, what are you going to do about it?