John gets up at 6 AM and fills his coffee pot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and pure because he bought a reverse osmosis filtration system to clean out the lead, iron, sediment, viagra and prozac that comes in from the local government water monopoly.
His Daily Medication
With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. He’d like to get the surgery instead, because the pills are slowly damaging his liver and kidneys. But due to government interference in the health care market – causing prices to rise – and the banking cartel’s government-chartered central bank’s debasing of the currency – causing the value of his salary to decline – he can’t afford it.
He smuggles his medication in from Mexico once a month because the government won’t allow it to be sold inside the US. It competes with the product of a large pharmaceutical company who has hired a lot of lobbyists to protect their US market share.
Government-Prohibited Products
John takes responsibility for his own health by preparing oatmeal for breakfast. He uses unpasteurized milk from the dairy down the street, avoiding the allergies and increased risk of heart disease associated with government-mandated pasteurized milk. He sprinkles some organic hemp seed on his oatmeal, a complete protein a friend snuck into the country from Canada because the government bans its cultivation here.
In the morning shower, John reaches for his favorite shampoo. It leaves his hair soft and shiny using only natural ingredients. He uses a special formula invented by a chemist friend and sold out of her garage and at flea markets – until government agents shut her down for operating a laboratory without a license and selling an unapproved healthcare product. John got the last bottle and is milking it.
Dirty Air, Thanks to the Government
John dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is noticeably contaminated because the government subsidizes big buses that belch out dangerous chemicals all day long all over the city. Zero-emission cars aren’t available on the market because the car makers and the oil companies are in bed with the government. They don’t want change.
He walks to the commuter rail station to ride a government-owned train to work. It used to belong to a private company but the government anti-trust laws caused the railway company to fail. He wishes he could drive to work but with the gasoline tax and the overcrowded government roads, he can’t afford it. He carries an illegal firearm on the train due to a recent mugging and is afraid someone will find out about it.
Sentenced to Wage Slavery … by the Government
John begins his workday. He has a boring job with average pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because that’s what the government mandates. He’d rather get it all in cash so he can choose his own health care and retirement plans. He’d like to start a business at home from his baking hobby but the government mandates he rent a separate space and purchase industrial baking appliances in order to get started. He might be able to do that – and quit his wage slave job in the city – if the government didn’t take 40 per cent of his income right off the top.
If John is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a workers’ compensation or unemployment check because he joined a local mutual aid society and voluntarily pays dues into it every week. But it’s the last one in his state and its future is uncertain because the government started competing services and can legally force people to pay for them. His mutual aid society pays better and costs less but most people can’t afford to pay for the same thing twice.
Escaping to Gold
It’s lunchtime so John heads to the coin shop to buy some gold. John knows that due to the constant expansion of the money supply by the banking cartel’s government-chartered central bank, the value of John’s dollars falls almost every day. Now that the FDIC is insolvent, he worries that economic collapse is around the corner and knows gold has always been a good store of value.
John paid too much for his house because he bought at the peak of the government-created bubble. Thanks to Fannie, Freddie, the FHA, the Fed and others in government, his house may soon be worth less than his mortgage. He had to take out government loans for college due to government higher education subsidies, which incentivize schools to charge more, because they’ll get more from the government if they do.
Government Putting His Dad out of Business
John is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his home in the country. His was the third generation to live on the property. But the EPA and OSHA are trying to shut down the family scrap yard business, claiming it violates hundreds of federal regulations. The local township raised taxes on the property recently and is trying to re-zone it to render the family business illegal.
He is happy to see his father, who would like to retire, but can’t. Due to self-employment taxes, his dad paid twice into Social Security but can only get the same meager check as anyone else. With the rising costs of health care – due to government subsidies and regulatory interference – he’s afraid his first medical emergency will wipe out his hard-earned savings.
“The Free Market is a Failure”
John gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host tells him that we need more government “solutions” to our problems, that government bureaucrats know what is best for him and the free market is a failure.
He doesn’t mention that the beloved government bureaucrats and politicians have undermined every protection and benefit John enjoys throughout his day and are destroying the best things in his life.
Text version. Feel free to distribute this as you see fit. Suggestions for improvement welcome. The next iteration may become a flyer to be distributed as part of my pamphleting project, copies to be available for sale. Who will turn it into a short dramatic video?
Photo credit: Lord Jim. Photo license.
My name is George Donnelly. I'm exploring ways to live self-sufficiently and in community with other liberty-loving folks. Check out my blog, Arm Your Mind for Liberty, at 
Great post, George. Thanks!
Sad but true.
Thanks for posting this, George.
Outstanding!
Ripe for making into a pamphlet! May I?
Glad you guys like it. By all means, fold, spindle, edit, distribute, make toilet paper out of it, whatever you find useful.
Good stuff George – it tkes Susan Dudley’s ‘A Regulated Day in the Life’ (www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv27n2/mercreportcomm.pdf) to the next level.
Molon labe!
Oooh thanks Pete! Fodder for version 2.
George, excellent piece. So clear, crisp, and logical. Why can’t everyone see things this way?
Because, Sujata, while George makes many valid points, he has lumped federal, state, and city governments into one big hodgepodge of failure, as if government is the source of all of our ills. The real problem here isn’t government, which is (or should be) we the people, anyway–not our elected officials. The problem is when our elected officials are more concerned with the welfare of the most powerful over the welfare of the least powerful, reflected in unjust laws and regulations, and when making money replaces morality in business. When government passes efficient laws and creates helpful programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security pre-Bush, the Civil Rights Act, the Mitchell Plan), I don’t hear much grumbling about how “inefficient” it is. After all, government is only as effective as its represented leaders, and since we can all run for Congress (over 25 for Representatives, 30 for Senators) and President (35 and a natural born citizen), and everyone over 18 can vote, we are responsible for both the good and the bad that comes out of Washington, our city governments, and are local governments.
Oh, and since most of the radio talk show hosts are conservative, I doubt we’d hear any of them advocating for government run health care, even though senior citizens (and all members of Congress) already have it in this country.
Should read “our local governments,” not “are local governments.” Sorry for not catching that one sooner!
You are right… government is not the source of failure, Government (The State) is ;P.
Just because I didn’t distinguish among which levels of government cause which ills does not mean that I argue that government is the source of all our ills. Faulty logic. Non sequitur.
This is not a conservative community, it’s a libertarian one. We don’t worry about efficiency. We worry about that which is morally right and that which is not, i.e., that which is voluntary and that which is not, respectively.
btw Social Security has always been a Ponzi scheme.
Just because I’m afforded a fake choice between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum doesn’t mean I am responsible for what the Tweedles do. For example, if you think you’re on the hook for the politicians’ debt, you’re a sucker. Repudiate it. You didn’t sign the promissory notes.
I said government solutions, not government healthcare. Even conservatives think there is some role for government, which is the same thing as thinking government can provide solutions.