Freedom remains the one essential of a just society. Without maximum "freedom" to speak, buy, sell, associate and believe, justice is merely a social, not personal, vision; good for my kind, not yours.
It is true that maximum freedom demands relatively equal access to ideas, business ventures, capital, associations, faith communities. A democratic society will ever seek to nurture access and remove actual barriers to free association, property rights, speech, faith, ideas and political power. To this end the government needs sufficient power to ensure these freedoms are honored between individuals, business, cultural, or religious associations and interrupt any monopolistic businesses or associations which by intention or effect deny the real practice of freedom, in all its expressions.
What the government cannot do, however, is align itself with any business, religious, cultural or ethnic community or individual to assure "outcomes" deemed for the social good. Once government crosses that line by choosing winners and losers, in terms of outcomes, "freedom" becomes the enemy of the professed good. Suppressing some person or association of persons will follow, limiting the speech, faith, political and property rights upon which the dignity of individuals and their communal associations depend.
The government compels by the sword and is therefore the most significant player in all the relationships that make up a free people. Governments should not grow larger than is required to make and keep the playing field open, accessible to all.
A Federal and digital currency means the government can know who spends what and where. If it chooses it can restrict certain purchases or perhaps limit the area in which a person may choose to spend their own money. That is the kind of power that corrupts all who practice it. Only a society with a vast private and cash based system can choose (or not) to buy gas cars, EV's, move from place to place (or not). Only a society which values freedom above all else can hope to enfranchise every person or people group in its future good.
It is the totalitarian regimes like China or Russia who wish to diminish free speech, association, ownership in the name of social equity. It is a lie from start to finish, no matter the intent, because "freedom" is the foundation upon which dignity and justice rest. It will ever be so!
Terry 04/03/24
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