It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle.
Gartman leans Libertarian and is definitely a free-marketer. He analyzes the markets worldwide and is always a good read if you understand things like “contango,” care about the “Yen/Euro cross,” and “the money multiplier.”
This quote he attributed to Alexis De Tocqueville in his book “Democracy in America.”
Having embarrassed myself so publicly recently I “Googled” the quote because it struck me as strangely modern. In America of the 1800s these “rights” had not yet been invented by Americans; European Socialists, maybe, but not Americans.
But the thought is profoundly true, nevertheless. Slaves are, after all, provided with food and housing and enough medical care to keep them alive and productive, all at no cost to them. But then, the same is provided to livestock.
But once you have given over to others the power to give these things to you - to make them a “right” that must be provided to you - you are soon in a position where you are unable to provide them for yourself. The taxes the government must have to provide them for you are no longer at your disposal. And being dependent on others for your food and shelter and medical care means your life is literally in their hands lest you be expelled from the “barn for human cattle.”
That is the nightmare of the welfare class: to be expelled from “public housing;” to have your food stamps taken away; to have Medicaid denied. Large segments of the Black underclass are as dependent on government bureaucrats as their ancestors were on the slave-owners of the old Confederacy.
In ancient times, people entered slavery primarily as a result of being defeated in battle, but sometimes people entered that state voluntarily. They found it too hard to make a living and were willing to give up their freedom for food and a place to stay. What is discouraging is that so many people today are unable to see that they are being seduced into becoming modern slaves, human cattle totally dependent on others for their existence.
And who is the actual author of these words? The very witty and smart P.J. O'Rourke who delivered them to the Cato Institute’s gala dinner celebrating the opening of its Washington headquarters in 1993.
For the entire speech, read The Liberty Manifesto.
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