We are doomed when even the Republicans are in favor of Tyranny

This is the end.  After 50 years of public education and brain washing by the media, we are completely steeped in the morality of the collective.

Even the most ardent free market citizens are willing to dispense with freedom and free markets on the slightest personal whim.

Here is an example:

A friend of mine is a capitalist.  Literally.  He is a hedge fund manager that allocates investments.  He is moving capital around for a living, and therefore is literally a capitalist. He graduated from the University of Chicago, arguably the most free market business school in the country where the Austrian School looms large.  He hates Obama and all things Democrat. 

So you would think that this man was a friend of freedom, liberty, property rights, and free markets.

Not so!

Over a lunch, he professed a love for the mandatory calorie counts that must be posted on menus in New York.  He likes this information, and likes to have it posted on the menus, and therefore is supportive of laws requiring restaurateurs to comply with his wishes.

When I pointed out that this was an example of the vast over reach of the government into an area that was none of its business, he objected "But I like having that information".  I pointed out that he was forcing people at the point of a gun to comply with his most whimsical desires.  He has a free market option open to him, namely to not eat at restaurants that do not display calorie counts.  But instead, he chooses to pass laws that make his whims into law.

The one concept that he struggled with was that by giving his whims that force of law, he was claiming the power to have people that do not comply with his whims shot in the face by the police.  He failed to understand that all government power comes from the barrel of a gun; the ultimate recourse after fines and court orders and such fail to produce compliance is to send the police to seize the offender, and if the offender resists, to shoot them.

So we had an interesting conversation:

"I want this information."

Then you should only eat at restaurants that provide it.

"Restaurants have no incentive to provide it, they only want to please their customers with good tasting food"

Restaurants need to attract customers in many ways, and if you only patronize restaurants that give you what you want, then restaurants will start offering this service in order to attract you.

"Not enough people want this to create a market..."

So, then, this is a personal whim that you are imposing on the rest of the world.  You are willing to have restaurant owners shot for the crime of not catering to your personal whims.

"Shot?!?  No!  I just it to be required by law. You know, fines and such."

Meaning what?  That a fine is imposed?  And if the fine is not paid? And when they show up to seize the restaurant and the owner for non-payment, what if he refuses to comply and resists?  At that point the police will call out the SWAT team and shoot that man.  They will shoot him in the face for the heinous crime of not complying with your whimsical desire to have calorie information displayed for you.

"I don't want him shot.  I just want the government to force him to post the information."

Have you ever skipped a meal, or walked across the street to another restaurant when you found out that the one you were in did not provide calorie information?

"No, I have not. Of course not!"

So then this personal whim of yours is important enough to you that you are willing to have other people shot in the face, but not important enough for you to walk across the street or even skip a meal? 

"You are making this sound crazy"

It is crazy.  You are like a modern day Caligula, imposing your whims and ordering the deaths of those who do not immediately comply... You are no different than the Islamofacists who kill people for not wearing the right clothing.  Your desires are paramount, no matter who has to die to satisfy you.

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And so we see that even the most ardent capitalists are willing to impose draconian solutions when they they want it.

When this is the case, we have lost our bearings as a society.