The Greater Good - it really isn't

You hear politicians speak of "the greater good" when it comes to legislation they are trying to pass.

If it's greater, that sounds wonderful. If it's good, that sounds wonderful too.

But as a Libertarian, I always sense that the whole idea of "greater good" really isn't good at all over the long term. Let's take a look at what it really means and how it serves to erode our freedoms every day.

We've fooled ourselves and allowed others to fool us too. It's time to stop that before we're all on the outside of free choice looking in, and wondering how did it all happen.

Think of the word insidious, and you'll have a good idea of what the concept of "the greater good" is all about. It is intended to creep up on us and overtake our sense of justice and civil rights.

Let's look at a few examples of how "the greater good" is supposed to work.

Examples of Greater Good in Action

Smoking bans are put in place as a measure intended to protect public health. The idea is to protect the health of those that frequent restaurants, bars, and other places of business that are open to the public.

The law is suppose to apply to public places, but it is broadly applied to privately owned establishments where the property owner should be able to decide for himself whether smoking is allowed. The smoking ban preempts private property owner rights - a cornerstone of freedom.

So we violate private property rights while striking a blow for public health. Can you see that the greater good of this law is really the net benefit of public health achieved after you subtract the violation of private property rights?

Isn't it really just the old "the ends justify the means" approach to doing things? That was what we criticized Richard Nixon for in the Watergate scandal.

Rent control is another example of application of the principle of "the greater good". Again, private property rights are violated by limiting rental rates or limiting how much rent can be increased. Often the restrictions against rent increases don't apply to new tenant applications.

As a result, tenants don't change apartments for fear of getting hit with much higher rent, no matter how poorly the apartment is maintained. Also, landlords are reluctant to do any maintenance or improvements to the property because they can't get sufficient return on investment.

Hence, buildings are in disrepair because the government has interfered with free enterprise. The violation of private property rights and the deterioration of property values is seen as being offset by "the greater good" of having more affordable housing in these soon to be slums.

Gun control is another way that laws interfere with our lives in the hope of creating greater good out of a bad situation. When gun control laws are passed, we often hear "if it saves just one life" then it's all worth it. The "one life" is the greater good that these legislative busybodies are looking for.

In nearly every case, gun control is simply victim disarmament. It puts people at greater risk because criminals know they are less likely to encounter an individual who is prepared to resist. If anything emboldens a criminal, it's a "gun free" zone.

You'll notice this concept of "gun free" zones hasn't stopped a single individual who was intent on causing death and great bodily harm at educational institutions across the country.

"The greater good" of gun control is the most cruel legal hoax of all. It trades lives for illusion of goodness that is simply the hope of a more peaceful society. And, the criminal shooters are enjoying every minute of it.

You'll notice that no one argues "the greater good" of having firearms, even when they clearly saves lives in "gun free" zones as demonstrated in several school and church shootings. So, greater good is a term that is used only when we have to subtract the evil from the expected good to show that our return for violating individual liberty is a net positive.

Lowering the permissible blood alcohol content is my last example of the application of the greater good concept in law making. Again, the good coming out of the legislation is the hope that people won't drive while intoxicated.

The reality is that the law only catches more people who have had anything to drink, and it does nothing to address the real problem of people who have had too much to drink. We have in essence widened the dragnet in hopes of deterring drinking and driving. It's a penalty on all of us because of the irresponsible acts of a few.

Have you noticed in the newspapers that drunks at the scene of a crash are now 3, 4 and sometimes 9 times above the legal limit in terms of permissible blood alcohol content? Does that make them more evil? No, it simply is an indication that we keep lowering the permissible level, and we're not having the effect that we had hoped for.

So, the idea is that we are being more restrictive on the casual and social drinker, while we basically ignore the heavy drinker who causes most of the problems. We punish the many for the actions of the few that we don't have the courage to address.

Again, when you subtract the penalty that everyone has to endure from the expected benefit of fewer drinkers behind the wheel, that is where we are hoping to have greater good come out in the end.

Conclusion

If you take a 30,000 foot view of this concept "the greater good", you begin to see that the freedoms of responsible individuals are trampled in the hopes of extracting some benefit in terms of changing the behavior of the few that are irresponsible.

That's our idea of fairness these days. It's easier to punish everyone instead of trying to take action against those that are not being responsible citizens.

This trampling of our liberty will continue for as long as we allow it. Sadly, we allow it on a regular basis now. Our constitutional government means little or nothing to many in office, and that has to change. We're headed for more restriction of our personal liberties every time we buy into the idea that we are serving "the greater good".

Remember, greater good is just another way of saying the ends justify the means. It's just another way of saying: "I know we're doing something wrong here, but we should get more benefit out of this than the wrong that we're inflicting on the general population."

Resist greater good in our laws, because it isn't great, and no good will come of it over the long haul. Instead, promote the libertarian ideal of greater freedom, and demand individual responsibility and accountability from everyone, especially our legislators.

Done with The Greater Good, take me Home.