The central tenet of self-government and individual freedom is letting we the people choose the way we want to live our lives, so long as it does not initiate violence or fraud on another person. When a central government picks winners and losers, we are seeing authoritarianism at work.
This week the US Congress belatedly passed a pork-laden omnibus spending bill. There is much to disgust a Libertarian in this legislation, but the one thing that symbolizes the way our government thinks we are foolish, naughty children who need papa government to save us from ourselves is the inclusion of a gradual ban of the incandescent light bulb in favor of compact fluorescents, halogens, and LEDs.
The facts that the new generation of bulbs are more energy efficient and last longer are beyond dispute. But Libertarians think government needs toconvince people to choose these new bulbs of their own free will; if the new bulbs perform so well, overwhelming majorities of people will select them on their merits.
Libertarians believe the fundamental requirement of a system that calls itself “free” is the freedom to fail, the freedom to make mistakes — and the responsibility of living with the consequences. When government bans one light bulb in favor of another, it is picking winners and losers, and limiting our freedom. The lightbulb ban demonstrates that Washington does not trust the judgement of the people. Why should the people trust the judgement of the government?
