Results tagged “responsibility” from The Morning After

President Obama has promised to sign into law a bill that grants the FDA power to hit the tobacco industry with sweeping regulations related to its production and marketing. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act drew vast support from Congress, winning large majorities in both houses. (Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, Jr. as well as Rep. Todd Platts all supported the act).

Unfortunately H.R. 1256--hailed by the president as "a bill that truly defines changes in Washington"--undermines America's promise of freedom.

Never mind that the mandatory warning labels depicting smoking's negative effects will have virtually zero consequence for a public that already knows that smoking kills--about 400,000 each year according to the CDC.

Never mind that those who propose limitations to the amount of nicotine per cigarette ignore the painstakingly obvious fact that smokers are addicted particularly to nicotine, not cigarettes, that for example a pack-a-day smoker craves a pack's worth of nicotine rather than a pack's worth of white paper cylinders.

Never mind that an ordered ban of all tobacco advertisements within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds, to take effect by 2012, blatantly violates First Amendment rights.

Never mind all of that.

Whatever happened to liberty's most essential ally, personal responsibility?

The idea behind the legislation is this: Because tobacco products are unhealthy and potentially fatal, the federal government must step in and save the people from themselves.

Or more accurately: Because the people are too stupid to make their own decisions about their personal health, the federal government then has a right to make those decisions for them.

How about this zany idea (I know it's radical, but bear with me):

What if each individual makes his or her own decisions on nonviolent matters that affect no others directly? And what if each individual suffers the bad consequences and benefits from the good?

For decades, the word has been out on the dangers of smoking. More and more, we're learning what has been swept under the rugs of Big Tobacco. The knowledge required to make an educated decision is out there.

The more responsibility for ourselves that we cede to the government (or anyone, for that matter), the less free we are. The hole we have dug is already a deep one. Some of us no longer expect to be held accountable for educating our children, paying our mortgages or
generating income while unemployed.

It's time to break the chain. It's time to quit--cold turkey.

An 18-month FDIC survey shows that banks are making $17.5 billion every year on overdraft fees, 74 percent of their service charges, according to USA Today. With most banks, if you overdraw via check, ATM or debit card transactions, you are hit with a fee of about $35 for each purchase. Also, young and low-income people consumers disproportionately incur the fees.

Oh no! shouts the angry mob. How dare they persecute people who are struggling, especially in today's economy! If people overdraw their accounts, it's usually because they have to do so in order to put food on the table. This is just one more case of the big guy exploiting the little guy!

Hold the phone, angry mob. Put down your pitchforks. Don't go lighting your torches just yet. Let's look at what really happens when people overdraw their accounts and receive the resultant fee.

• They are spending money that belongs to the bank, not themselves.
• They are violating the bank's contract--that all involved parties signed-- which explicitly states that doing so will incur a fee.

If they signed the contract thereby consenting to the fee, it can't be exploitative. Can a person exploit oneself? Of course not. It can't get any simpler.

But no! the angry mob protests, The banks make it so hard to track the status of an account, leading to more overdraft fees!

Well, yes, but we know this, so we can take it into account. And most large banks process larger transactions before smaller ones, increasing the likelihood of multiple fees. But the reason for this is so that, as USAToday.com user candice23 so eloquently said: "your mortgage, rent, car payment and grocery bill get paid before your cigarettes and your Slurpees."

What's lacking here isn't a decree from a regulatory body, as others have suggested. It's personal responsibility. Angry mob, you signed a contract of your own free will consenting to overdraft fees. Regardless of the reason for an overdraft, you have to accept fault for the consequences.

Common sense dictates: don't spend money that you don't have. Maybe, just maybe, if the angry mob learns this maxim, it will start to catch on with corporations or the government.

When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was the freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.   

- Edward Gibbon

We as Americans have spent the better part of the last two years asking questions like: Is the US ready for a female/Mormon/black/old/Hispanic president? The answer has always been unclear, but one thing remains certain. As a whole, we are not ready to be free.

All too similar are we to the ancient Athenians. We have relinquished responsibility at every turn. If we live in an unsafe neighborhood, we hold not ourselves but the government responsible for our protection. It doesn't matter to us that we are the ones who chose to live in that neighborhood, nor does it matter to us that we can take care of ourselves. Accountability? What's that?

If we fall under hard times, we spend half of our hours blaming people and the other half expecting someone to bail us out. We demand that the responsible people, taxpayers, pay for the mistakes of the irresponsible people. Don't get me wrong--I have nothing against voluntary charity. But when it is mandatory and the receiver does nothing but sit and wait for it, the entire process is bastardized.

If we took out a loan that we can't afford to pay back, we blame the lender for not knowing any better. Or we blame the government for not making a law that stops companies from practicing unsound business, or for making lenders approve loans for all under the guise of "fairness" and "equality." No one wins in a game of pass-the-buck.

Without individual responsibility, freedom is the chaotic free-for-all that typically comes to mind upon hearing the word "anarchy." With it, freedom means I can't force you to pay for my protection, and you can't force me to pay for yours. Freedom means that our neighbors can't force us to live only in a way that they approve. Freedom means each person taking it upon themselves to protect their own rights and account for their own successes or failures. Freedom means that your neighbors' failures don't get funded by your successes.

We may be ready for a woman, a Mormon, a black man, an old man or even a Hispanic man as president. But are we ready for freedom? No way.