Liberty & Equality. I saw this title on the Big Government web site for an article. I briefly scanned the intro and liked the topic. As the intro there states, they are two values to which Americans naturally gravitate. They are in our value system and have been for some time, but they are not the same nor are they related closely.



Liberty relates to freedoms. In our value system as reflected in the Declaration of Independence, there are liberties that are "self-evident" and "endowed by our Creator". But we protect liberties generally in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights. That is why the Constitution is a document of negative rights as President Obama has been quoted as saying. He shouldn't be regretful of this. It is a thing of beauty and what separates our Constitution from say that of the EU with its 2000+ pages of what the EU government should do for its people.

Equality is entirely different. Equality is an outcome. It is also subjective in the social world. The fact of nature is that humans are not equal. We're not all the same height, weight, gender, skin color, ability, interests, and talents. To try to make us equal requires some all-knowing Judge to determine the equality. And that my friends is where it breaks down. Those who strive for equality in the world are often those who want to be the Judges. Marxism as it is practiced has always (show me an example where it hasn't) led to an oligarchy or autocracy. Think Russia with its Communist party leaders or similar in China. Think of current day Venezuela with Chavez playing the role of all-knowing Judge for his country.

I see this in the US today with the liberals complaining of excessive profits at companies and how unfair that is to "the people". We need to be careful. Government cannot and should not try to guarantee equality. It is contrary to our nature and ultimately the effort to achieve it comes at the expense of liberties of individuals. You have to take from some to be able to give to others.