"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -- P.J. O'Rourke

We have gotten to a point in our society where people can pursue courses of action that we know, they know, that everyone knows are highly likely to end in disaster. But then, when the aforementioned tragedy inevitably occurs, there is a demand that the federal government "fix the problem."

But what's wrong with saying,

* You're about to lose your house because you got a subprime loan to buy a house $300,000 more than what you could afford. Sorry, but it's your own fault.

* Maybe you wouldn't be struggling to make ends meet if you hadn't dropped out of high school and had 3 babies by 3 different men by the time you were 25. It's not the government's job to take the place of your children's father.

* Your business wouldn't be struggling to hire workers today if you hadn't hired a work force that is 90% illegal aliens in the first place. So, if your business suffers while you replace the illegals, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Instead, when the bill for the irresponsibility of these sort of people comes due, it always seems to be everyone else's job to bail them out of the mess they got themselves into.

"And many writers have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for there is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation: for a man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good." -- Niccolo Machiavelli

Too often, people and nations are judged harshly because their actions fall short of some imaginary, moral ideal. Capitalism may be the best economic system, but it's bad because it doesn't make every person equally rich and successful. The United States has been the most moral super power in history, but we're as bad as Nazi Germany because we haven't lived up to the utopian standards in some liberal's head. The U.S. military takes more care not to kill civilians than any military ever has, but they're just as bad as Al-Qaeda because they accidentally kill civilians while fighting terrorists who use the innocent as human shields.

When it comes to your principles, there's nothing wrong with shooting for the stars, but we shouldn't revile people and nations because they come up short of their aim and merely hit the moon.

"By government giveaway programs, individuals are often hurt far more than they are helped. The recipients of these programs become dependent on the government and their dignity is destroyed. Is it compassionate to enslave more and more people by making them a part of the government dependency cycle? I think compassion should be measured by how many people no longer need it. Helping people to become self-sufficient is much more compassionate than drugging them with the narcotic of welfare." -- Rush Limbaugh

Government wealth transfers are destructive, not just to the productive people who have their money taken, but often to the people who receive the money as well. The aim of every government program we have to help the poor should not be to help them just get by; it should be to put them in a better position to help themselves. If you do nothing but teach people to stand around with their hands out, waiting for you to take care of them, you've created a beggar. If you teach people to take care of themselves, you've created a productive person who may actually be able to shoulder part of the burden in this country instead of being part of that burden themselves.

"In the early decades of the Republic, equality meant equality before God; liberty meant the liberty to shape one's own life....A very different meaning of equality has emerged in the United States in recent decades -- equality of outcome. Everyone should have the same level of living or of income, should finish the race at the same time. Equality of outcome is in clear conflict with liberty. The attempt to promote it has been a major source of bigger and bigger government, and of government-imposed restrictions on our liberty." -- Milton Friedman

Individuals, genders, and even whole ethnic groups do not always have the same interests, talents, backgrounds, or experiences and thus, they do not achieve the same outcomes. That doesn't mean the system is unfair; it means that despite the fact that some people like to try to pretend that every American is just another interchangeable cog in a great wheel, we are each different. That's why the government should get out of the quota business and allow everyone to rise or fall based on his own abilities and inclinations. If that means some people or groups are able to surpass others in certain areas, so be it; that's life.

"A succinct summary of the tragic vision was given by historians Will and Ariel Durant: Out of every hundred new ideas ninety-nine or more will probably be inferior to the traditional responses which they propose to replace. No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for those are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history." -- Thomas Sowell

We're far too cavalier as a society about tinkering with our society's most important traditions and customs. We discuss making fundamental changes to marriage, to our cultural norms, and to the customs and laws that have helped preserve this country since its foundation with nary a thought to the lasting damage we may be doing to our society.

People should remember that the history of the world is not that of great countries rising to prominence and then staying there eternally. To the contrary, the landscape of history is littered with nations and empires that became great, lost the spark that made them exceptional in the first place, and then dissolved or came to ruin. Continued...