The Free View-- weblog of a presidential candidate

Items of Independence

I want to share a mix of things I've been reading on and around this Independence Day. They all tie in to the same theme, in their own way.

I posted about "What's so great about America" on The Little Brown Reader, and here's what I wrote:

In this must-read essay, Dinesh D'Souza explains what it is that draws people from other countries to America. He calls it "self-determination" and "the pursuit of happiness", both of which support my belief that what draws people to America is freedom. Not wealth or welfare, but the promise of individual liberty.

This chronology of Thomas Edison's inventions and projects shows the amazing potential of unrestrained human energy. This is a shorter version from the same source, and here's a version that's got a lot more narrative detail, but might not be quite as reliable with the hard facts. And here's one from Edison Elementary School that's got narrative and is probably pretty reliable.

Any of those, or any telling of Edison's life really, shows just how much a person can accomplish if they set their mind to it -- and if they are allowed to. There are so many limits, controls, and bureaucratic barriers in modern-day America, that I'm doubtful that a Thomas Edison born today would be able to follow a similar course. Undoubtedly, people can still accomplish great things, but if you just imagine how much extra time, money, and energy of Edison's would have been consumed in dealing with getting permits and licenses, fighting with various officials from various agencies, complying with regulations, and so on...well, let's guesstimate that it might have consumed 20% of his personal working capital. (I believe the amount would have been much, much higher.) What 20% would you subtract from a life like that? Just think about how hard it is to open up a factory or a laboratory now. In many instances, Edison went from looking at the problem to solving it to mass-producing the solution in 90 days or less. Is that possible now, in the U.S.? I think not. And it's not due to the limitations of human energy or knowledge. It's due to needing to get approval or disapproval before doing or not doing almost anything of significance.

Finally, this column by Michael Kinsley proposes an exit strategy by which to cut short the likely long debate over gay marriage -- which is, to get the government out of the job of licensing or sanctioning marriages entirely. His case similar to the view I posted back in December of 2001, but he fleshes it out more than I did.