Progress by Fiat

"I mean, the notion of war between the major states of Europe is pretty fantastic, and now we’re adding Russia and China, I would argue, and India and Argentina and Brazil, other big countries for whom the notion of us having classic state on state war gets more and more fantastic over time. That’s not the case inside my gap. There’s a lot of war. Most of it is within countries. It spills across borders. But what’s lacking there is that overarching legal rule set that gives people a sense of confidence and certitude that if they take chances, they’ll be rewarded over time. And a lot of it’s real simple stuff. It’s intellectual property laws, contract law. It’s the ability to own property and defend that."

The quote comes from Thomas P.M. Barnett's book, The Pentagon's New Map. I want to emphasize the italicized section, "overarching legal rule set".

The glee I see on the televised face of the local progressives, known here as the DFL party, (and believe me that word party is the only thing happy about them), as they push to extend their do-gooding about smoking over the entire state, looks like hangman's excitement.

What the libs do not understand with their meddling do-gooding, people's willingness to take chances are undercut or cut out alltogether. What does it cost for the smallest unit, one person, to start a business? How small can the shoestring be? $6000? $60,000? The no-second-hand smoky-do-gooders are confiscating people's stakes in their own futures and doing it with the smile of the virtuous serpent, patting themselves on the back, needing neither reason nor fact because "the cause be just". Central planning, progress by fiat.