Permit Me to Help You... Literally!

Back in August, I wrote, "Forget A Banana Republic, America Has Become A Lemon Nation." It brought to light a ridiculous crack down on children's lemonade stands for the simple fact that they did not acquire a permit from the government. Well, America has hit a new low. 

A few days ago I came across this story, "Church Ordered to Stop Giving Away Free Water," which describes a church that was engaging in charity, only to be stopped by none other than the government. According to the story, the church was given a cease and desist order for handing out bottles of water and coffee during the Mardi Gras parade route. Why? Well, the article explains that "The church volunteers were cited for failing to secure an occupational license and for failure to register for a sales tax." A question that instantly came to mind was if the church was not selling anything, why the hell would they need to register for a sales tax?!?! It makes absolutely no sense. 

But that's besides the larger point. What is even more aggravating, looking at the fundamental principles that are at play here, is the fact that the government has a total disregard for morality. Charity is something that is done voluntarily. The church in this case acted upon its own judgement and decided that they wanted to contribute to their community by providing drinks for people marching in the parade. That is their right! The act of giving charity is moral because it is a voluntary action that does not violate the rights of others. It's odd that the government would require someone to acquire a permit for such a transaction when the government's idea of helping people is initiating force against its citizens (and thus violating their rights), in order to redistribute wealth to those people and causes it decides are worthwhile. And it does so on quite a large scale. Aside from stealing from productive members of society to give to those who are in need (via coercive income taxation funneled to welfare programs), the government forces people to provide welfare to other nations (foreign aid) and corporations that we may not necessarily support, and even worse, in some cases the money is wasted (i.e. Solyndra). To put it simply, the way the government does business is mind-thwarting, as it replaces each individuals rational judgment with the judgement of bureaucrats who feel they know better. 

You know America is in a moral crisis when "We the People" need permission from the government to help our fellow man. I cannot think of anything more disgusting than having to ask an entity guilty of actively initiating force against me on a daily basis for permission to deal with others voluntarily. We have officially entered the twilight zone! 

This very topic reminds me of a great quote from Penn Jillette:

In closing, I only have one thing to say to the government when it comes to the charity I choose to engage in: IT'S NONE OF YOUR GOD DAMN BUSINESS!

Objectivism in Practice- JPMC Donates 'Unprecedented' $4.6M to the NYPD; OWS Suggests Nefarious Motive

The "Occupy Wall Street" protest, now in its third week, has recently brought to light (que the sarcasm!) a disgraceful act committed by banking giant J.P. Morgan Chase: Charity! $4.6 million to be exact, donated to New York City’s finest. 

While OWS suggests on its website a causal link between the anti-capitalist uprising and the generosity extended on behalf of JPMC, with one supporter commenting, “wow, good catch. so now we know the cops are literally bought and paid for in this,” it is clear from the facts that this is nothing less than a benevolent act of a successful business self-interestedly investing into the security of our city. Although OWS would like you to believe that JPMC donated those funds as a bribe for protection against demonstrators, with some going so far as to say the banking giant directly funded the arrests of more than 700 on the Brooklyn Bridge, it took no less than 2 seconds worth of research to pull up an article dating back to June 4, 2011 that describes this exact donation in question being made, months prior to the beginning of the protest on Wall Street. According to JPMC’s website:

JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD's main data center.

This begs the question, how could JPMC’s intentions have been easily misconstrued to be something more sinister? To understand how a charitable act could be misinterpreted, it’s important to understand the mindset of the statist. Statists believe that people are inherently bad, and thus, must be coerced to do good (if they did not fundamentally believe this, there would be no point to their support for the use of force). Therefore, they believe that an act of charity (possible thanks to Capitalism), as evidenced by OWS and many of their supporters on the blogosphere, must be accompanied by a nefarious agenda. Their solution is State control, as evidenced by the protesters' signs calling for wealth redistribution from the rich to the poor via government force. Ironic, and inconsistent, with other signs amongst the group proclaiming to be in support of “Human Rights.” How can anyone take this group seriously?

It’s simply illogical to believe that JPMC’s donation was a bribe to police for an upcoming protest that was not even being planned or discussed at the time of the donation. Is there a time-machine nobody know’s about? It stands to reason that if JPMC did in fact feel threatened by OWS, they would have hired a private security firm to protect their property (as most businesses do anyway). But what strikes me most is that this accusation is not so much of harm to JPMC as it is to the integrity of the officers that are on the streets protecting the rights of all citizens. This is nothing less than an act of vengeance against an entire department for the potential (pending an investigation) misconduct towards a few demonstrators by a few officers. 

On a final note, the generosity exhibited by JPMC is nothing less than a simple demonstration of objectivism in practice, and goes to show a government solely limited to it's moral role of protecting individual rights could in fact be funded (contrary to the statist’s beliefs) in a non-coercive, voluntary way, especially by the rich and successful. The reality of the situation is, we all benefit from what JPMC has done. The NYPD now has more resources to combat crime and protect all of our rights. This act deserves nothing less than gratitude and commendation. 

(With that said, I want to extend my deepest apologies to the past, the present, and the future generations of this great nation and of this world, on behalf of my generation for its part in the OWS uprising. We, the ‘gimme’ generation who have had it so easy, who have been handed so much, instead of giving thanks, we demand more. We have now grown to be an insatiable parasite. May we one day be forgiven.)