Government both gives and takes freedom.  We measure this tradeoff at the societal level, on what’s good for society as a whole.  But the tradeoffs happen at the individual level.  For some of the tradeoffs, it’s balanced – all individuals give up their right to drive on the left-hand side of the road, and all individuals benefit by being able to get to their destination faster.  But many of the tradeoff’s disadvantage one group of individuals to advantage a different group of individuals.  

A person that owns property next to a river that is classified as protected wetlands is limited by law in what the person can do with that property.  We classify land as wetlands because of the role it plays in our ecosystem.  The wetlands help filter the water and remove contaminants.  They also serve as a buffer during heavy rains.  Because the wetlands are undeveloped, the river can spill over its banks.  The wetlands absorb some of the water, and by allowing the water to spread out, the slow the rise of the river.  

Here in St. Louis Missouri, the Mississippi River is constrained by flood walls and gates that keep floodwater out of the city.  But part of the reason the flood walls are sufficient is that further upstream the wetlands around the Missouri River, which joins the Mississippi just upriver of St. Louis, have been protected or reclaimed from farmers.  These flood plains allow the Missouri to overflow its banks in times of heavy rain, which slows the volume of water which is passing through St. Louis.  

The rules about wetlands benefits hundreds of thousands of people living in St. Louis.  It helps ensure their lives aren’t interrupted or even destroyed by catastrophic flooding.  The wetlands laws increase the freedom of people living in St. Louis.  But they do so by decreasing the freedom of the people that own property upstream from St. Louis.  A few give up some of their freedom, so that others might enjoy greater freedom.  This is the tradeoff our society has made, and on the whole, society is better for it.  

This is the reality of the compromise of freedom.  The freedom that government gives to one group of individuals often is achieved by lessening the freedom of another group of individuals.

“Government” is shorthand for groups of people joining together to collaboratively decide their actions. 
 
We join together – we collaboratively decide our actions – because doing so gives us more freedom than we would have on our own.  We have a far greater ability to survive and even thrive in our natural world by joining together than we do on our own.  We produce far more value for everybody if we all work together to meet our wants and needs.  That’s the genius of the human species – we’ve figured out how hundreds of millions of us can work together, and it’s produced the freedoms of this amazing world in which we live. 
 
But as we gain freedom, we also lose freedom.  We get this greater freedom in some areas by giving away a part of our freedom in other areas.  The very act of joining the group and taking part in the collaboration requires giving up a part of one’s freedom.  The person joining gave up their ability to decide where they go, and instead goes where the group decides.  As they attempt to meet their needs collaboratively, they give up part of their freedom to decide what they will do to meet their needs.  We have ever greater control of our lives, but less control of days. 
 
This is the compromise of freedom – we give us some in order to get more.  We made the compromise the first time we joined together with others of our species.  We continue to make it today.  We all give up our freedom to drive on the left side of the road, because doing so allows all of us to get to where we are going faster and safer.  We judge the compromise to be worth it. 
 
But it is a compromise.  Again, “Government” is shorthand for how we collaboratively decide their actions.  Government extends our freedom in many areas.  The compromise of freedom is also the compromise of government – for government to extend freedom it must also take freedom. 
 
Government both gives and takes freedom.

Prior post: Does Government Give Freedom or Take Freedom

Does government give freedom or take freedom?

“Government” is shorthand for groups of people joining together to collaboratively decide their actions. 

One of nature’s values is collaboration.  In some species, groups collaborate to better meet their needs.  Lions often hunt together.  Collaboration gives all of the creatures collaborating together a better chance of surviving nature than on their own. 
 
One of the things that separates humans from other species is our almost unlimited ability to collaborate.  Early humans collaborated to stay alive in a harsh and unforgiving nature.  Today we collaborate globally to produce the goods and services that give us our life. 
 
Two other values of nature are efficiency and precision.  The more efficient a creature is in meeting its needs, the better its ability to survive nature.  A trout in a stream has to ensure the energy produced by catching and eating an insect has to be greater than the energy used by the trout in catching the insect.  The less energy expended to get the insect, the better.  Precision impacts efficiency.  If the trout strikes at the insect and is imprecise, it misses, and has inefficiently wasted energy.  Striking precisely is more efficient and increases the trout’s chances of surviving.  Nature values efficiency, precision and for some species, collaboration.
 
Collaboration allows specialization.  Instead of each person having to know how to do every task to survive, different people can know different tasks well, and so do them better.  One person can be better at making stone spear tips, another person at throwing the spears.  The stronger, more precisely the spear is thrown, the better chance of striking the prey.  The sharper, straighter the spear tip, the better chance of piercing the prey and wounding or killing it.  This ability to specialize gives the group a better chance of surviving nature.  However specialization requires greater precision.  If each person is only doing a part of the process, the different parts of the different people have to fit together. 
 
The ability of humans to collaborate efficiently and precisely is why we have our modern, technologically advanced world.  It’s why we have the amazing freedoms we have. 
 
Again, “Government” is how we manage this collaboration.  It’s how we ensure each person is able to take part in the collaboration. 
 
People only collaborate to give themselves more freedom. 
 
At a fundamental level, the purpose of government is to give freedom.

Proposal:  Make direct cash payments to Section 8 recipients to allow them, in conjunction with a church or non-profit, to purchase a house and build personal equity instead of renting an apartment.
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Background:  Ultimately, the goal of any safety net program is economic agency, to give the recipients of the aid the ability to take control of their economic lives.  Government programs can have the opposite effect, building a dependency on the government instead of self-reliance.  The current Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 8 program is an example.  The program does allow recipients to take control of where they live, however it also leaves most of the responsibility with the government.  The government decides if a housing unit is adequately maintained, not the recipient.  The government pays the landlord directly, instead of trusting the recipient to make the payment.  And there is no incentive for the recipient to find comparable, lower priced housing – the recipient doesn’t financially benefit from being frugal.

They are sometimes referred to, tongue in cheek, as “The Harrolds of North County”. There are a lot of them, and many are very successful in their chosen fields. In parts of North County, if you mention knowing one of the Harrolds the person you are talking with is almost guaranteed to say “Oh yeah, I know..” and then name a cousin or uncle or aunt.
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Continue reading reading on The Ferguson Observer.

https://blake-ashby.medium.com/i-pray-every-day-746f98efb56f
​https://blakeashby.podbean.com/e/i-pray-every-day/

A friend believes the presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump. Me? I doubt it. But according to polls, most Republicans believe President-elect Joe Biden only won the presidency because of significant voter fraud.

Sometimes it seems as if “compromise” has become a dirty word. It’s worth remembering that it was a compromise, Democratic Capitalism, that made the United States the country it is. 
Democratic Capitalism is capitalism moderated by the power of democracy to ensure we all have a chance to participate in our economy, share in its benefits and that everyone plays by the same set of financial and legal rules. 

As a longtime Republican who voted against Donald Trump twice, I’m relieved that this chapter of our history is almost over. But it’s hard not to be disappointed by the campaign that Democrat Joe Biden ran. Our divided country needed a debate on the proper role for government in our society. We didn’t get it.

Continue Reading https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/blake-ashby-an-opportunity-missed-for-democrats-to-redeem-capitalism/article_df288fc1-4040-5ab7-b13f-5776aff6e935.html

​Published in St. Louis Post-Pispatch 12/01/20

It’s been a great month for democracy.
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Not because Joe Biden won, although I am happy about that. It’s been a great month for democracy because the citizens of the United States of America proved yet again that we recognize, and cherish, this beautiful system of government we have built. We cherish the right of every American – every American – to participate in the process of choosing our leaders.

Early Sunday evening, I watched a 77-year-old grandmother get punched by a Ferguson protester. She told him to stop spray-painting graffiti. She turned to talk to another protester; he took two steps toward her and cold-cocked her in the jaw, knocking her off her feet.
Continue reading https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/blake-ashby-speaking-out-against-protest-vandalism-doesn-t-warrant-physical-attack/article_49f6bad2-8f00-5680-a55c-3ce1f5f2ce56.html
Published in St. Louis Post-Dispatch 06/04/20

Information about our federal coronavirus preparedness and response is slowly starting to come out. However there’s one critical piece of data that we will likely never learn: How many people were turned down for tests because of lack of testing capacity?
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Continue reading https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/blake-ashby-the-missing-data-what-you-dont-measure-you-cant-manage/article_0ab2d969-d32d-56fa-99b4-4a366907ad40.html
Published in St. Louis Post-Dispatch 04/11/20

If nothing else, the global pandemic is highlighting the interdependence of the global economy, and hopefully the need for international cooperation. Global oil production is yet another example of this interdependence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/10/trump-mexico-oil/. The first oil well in the world was drilled in the United States in 1859; we have been pumping it out of the ground ever since.

It’s a rough time for our country, but we will get through it, and we will eventually get back to the presidential election.  When we do, I’m hoping its with a more civil, less hateful approach.  And that includes how we talk about President Trump.

We need to get through this crisis, and we will.  Once we do, we need to have a real conversation about the proper role of government.  What do we as individuals take responsibility for, and what responsibilities do we place on society, on government?  It’s not an easy question – where does individual responsibility end, and government responsibility begin?  Where do the rights of the individual end, and the rights of the group begin? ​

Lost in the global bad news over the weekend was a bit of good news – Israel became a little more democratic. For the first time ever, the parties representing Arab Israelis have agreed to participate in a coalition government. The Blue and White Party, in its efforts to cobble together a majority in Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, had asked the Joint List of Arab-majority Parties to join its governing coalition. With these added voted, the Blue and White Party has a majority of votes and has been given the right to form a new government, with its leader as Prime Minister.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-election-gantz-rivlin-netanyahu-liberman/2020/03/15/c5f251d0-66e1-11ea-b199-3a9799c54512_story.html

One of the problems in our society is that the anonymity of digital communications allows some people to feel empowered to say things that they would never say to someone’s face. An example of this are threats of harm or even death. If threats of this nature were made face to face, the person making the threat would be subject to arrest – it is illegal to threaten to harm or kill someone. However since these threats are being made remotely, often anonymously, action is almost never taken against the person making the threat. Often they are in a different jurisdiction and local law enforcement lacks the resources or technical capabilities to adequately pursue the case.

Here’s an example of how American Capitalism has been distorted: compensation for Chief Executive Officers of public companies. If you go back a few decades, the average corporate CEO made about 20 times what his or her workers made. By 2010, the average CEO made 200 times what the average worker made, an increase of 1,000%. The average CEO went from being paid hundreds of thousand dollars a year to being paid tens of millions of dollars a year.

I have to admit, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Michael Milken..  He did deserve the jail time he got, he was breaking securities laws in an attempt to hide his holdings and influence.  But in the scope of Wall Street characters or scoundrels, whichever you prefer, he was also an innovator that helped change and yes improve our financial markets. 

We need to make Democracy a condition of any future nuclear deal with Iran. Iran insists that it is a responsible nation and can be trusted with nuclear technology.  Recent unrest has shown yet again that the nation doesn’t trust its own people, and the people are losing their trust in their leadership.  Iran is not a democracy, it is a theocracy, run in the name of God by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.  The Supreme Leader has control over every aspect of society, and a private army, the Revolutionary Guard, that only answers to him.