Cap-and-trade vs. freedom

[WhiskeyGirl]

There is a very small but power-packed book entitled, The Law - The Classic Blueprint for a Free Society, that was written in 1849 by Frederic Bastiat, a Frenchman who saw that America’s form of government was the most free in the world. 

He spoke in similar terms as our own Declaration of Independence when he wrote, “Life, faculties, production - in other words individuality, liberty, property - that 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.”

Bastiat recognized that where there was property, there was also plunder, writing, “Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources.  This process is the origin of property.  But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others.  This is the origin of plunder.”

And how could plunder be stopped?  “It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor”, said Bastiat, explaining that that is the “proper purpose of law”.
As I write this article, the House of Representatives has passed the so-called “Cap and Trade” bill and has sent it to the Senate.

Bastiat divides plunder into two categories, illegal plunder (meaning actual theft) and legal plunder (meaning use of the law to steal).  He determines what is and is not legal plunder with a simple test.  “See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.  See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”

Read more here -
http://www.tulsabeacon.com/?p=2365

Anyone on Main Street get bailed out for their gambling debts?  Or, are bailouts just for those gamblers on Wall Street, the Treasury, Congress, and the Federal Reserve?  Special interest groups?  Politicians?

It seems like 'our' laws don't benefit 'citizens' and those here legally as much as they benefit those here illegally...

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

The Waxman-Markey climate bill cleared a House committee and awaits further action in the Senate, where Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has said she will write another version of the bill.

The legislation eventually would result in a marketplace in excess of $1 trillion for buying and selling emission permits, which explains why the proposal has the political support of large, well-connected investment bankers such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase, who, understandably, see exciting business opportunities in a new global-trading scheme.

Wow!!!  One trillion.  How much will Goldman, Morgan Chase and others make?

http://www.joplinglobe.com/editorial/local_story_210200320.html

How many on Main Street will have to decide between heat and food?  How many won't be able to afford to get to work?

Why not clean up, and NOT charge Main Street?

Surely, someone can figure out how to do this without Goldman Sachs and other traders.