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Despite being a buzzword used in the Constitution. Republicans and Democrats don't exactly use this word. Libertarians on the otherhand, are obsessed with this. However, it is not altogether clear what they mean by Liberty.
What is liberty?
Google's top two definitions for Liberty are:
1. the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.
2. the power or scope to act as one pleases.
Ok so now we know what the definition of liberty is. However, as the comments from this thread are about to prove. It is a vague definition open to vast interpretations.
How would you measure liberty?
Is it The size of government, the magnitude of taxes and spending or the amount of laws on the books?
The problem with measuring liberty is that you can measure the size of the government using many, many different variables. You can measure it by spending, by debt, by employees, by agencies, by how many Americans are registered etc... So how can all of these measurements be right?
Taxes are another problem: We as a society have concluded that it is fair and reasonable to tax the population. Thus allowing the government to spend money. (Of course, it's a little bit more complicated than that.) Tax brackets are currently the only way in which we can have some type of measurement as to how "fair" the system treats people and how much liberty they can get. So without those measurements, how would we measure liberty? NOTE: This is probably the easiest and most efficient way to measure liberty. Too bad, it's so complicated and requires tons of laws in order to enforce...
Laws: The Government will never stop writing laws. States will never stop writing laws. People need some type of structure. So there will always be an unending amount of laws being written. Is that really bad news for the liberty-seekers?
It also depends on whose liberty you are focusing on: business owners versus employees and/or consumers, men vs. women, whites vs. blacks, native-born Americans vs. immigrants. How many members of the naive liberty-seekers club have personally been hurt or abused by the Federal Government and has been prevented from pursing happiness and an otherwise fulfilled life? How many of your personal experiences was in fact caused by yourself or other factors outside the scope of the government?
So in other words, like a lot of other political topics. Liberty is and always has been, a buzzword. A word warped by individual experiences and interpreted so.
What is liberty?
Google's top two definitions for Liberty are:
1. the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.
2. the power or scope to act as one pleases.
Ok so now we know what the definition of liberty is. However, as the comments from this thread are about to prove. It is a vague definition open to vast interpretations.
How would you measure liberty?
Is it The size of government, the magnitude of taxes and spending or the amount of laws on the books?
The problem with measuring liberty is that you can measure the size of the government using many, many different variables. You can measure it by spending, by debt, by employees, by agencies, by how many Americans are registered etc... So how can all of these measurements be right?
Taxes are another problem: We as a society have concluded that it is fair and reasonable to tax the population. Thus allowing the government to spend money. (Of course, it's a little bit more complicated than that.) Tax brackets are currently the only way in which we can have some type of measurement as to how "fair" the system treats people and how much liberty they can get. So without those measurements, how would we measure liberty? NOTE: This is probably the easiest and most efficient way to measure liberty. Too bad, it's so complicated and requires tons of laws in order to enforce...
Laws: The Government will never stop writing laws. States will never stop writing laws. People need some type of structure. So there will always be an unending amount of laws being written. Is that really bad news for the liberty-seekers?
It also depends on whose liberty you are focusing on: business owners versus employees and/or consumers, men vs. women, whites vs. blacks, native-born Americans vs. immigrants. How many members of the naive liberty-seekers club have personally been hurt or abused by the Federal Government and has been prevented from pursing happiness and an otherwise fulfilled life? How many of your personal experiences was in fact caused by yourself or other factors outside the scope of the government?
So in other words, like a lot of other political topics. Liberty is and always has been, a buzzword. A word warped by individual experiences and interpreted so.
