How do you convince someone that the incremental encroachments upon our way of life actually can result in total loss of liberty sometime in the future? Even with all the regulations and laws, 99.9% of the "law abiding" populace will never end up in jail for anything they say or do. This belief does not acknowledge loss of property as an actual punishment. Like civil asset forfeiture, the EPA seizing your land, eminent domain, government fines, $130,000 fines for refusal to bake a cake, etc.
Property is an inalienable right just like life and liberty, but we do not treat it as such. Most people will never be attacked by the bureaucracy; therefore, the problem does not really "exist". To them anyway. Ask the person who lost their life savings attempting to defend himself against regulations not even made by elected officials.
Think you are free of government influence? Read this article by David Montgomery, and I think you may reconsider. Here is a small excerpt:
What Makes a Criminal?
Merriam-Webster defines crime as “activity that is against the law.” Law is defined as a “set of rules made by the government.” Thus a criminal is someone who breaks government rules.
The law as a whole is an ever-expanding collection of rules that politicians (“lawmakers”) decree and occasionally repeal. Laws are as moral as the politicians who make them.
Simply put, laws are the rules politicians make up, and criminals are people who break them.
It floored me to realize: Anne Frank was, in fact, a criminal. She was a fugitive of the law.
We can express outrage at the designation since Anne did nothing wrong. And we can debate which rules of any particular regime are tolerable or repugnant. But our opinions don’t change the fact that “criminal” is a government-defined standard imposed on us, the governed.
A law-abiding citizen was obligated to turn Anne into the police. To assist her was a crime. In America the Fugitive Slave Law obligated law-abiding citizens to turn in runaway slaves, and assisting them was punishable by 6 months in jail and a $28,000 fine (in today’s dollars).
In early colonial America masturbation, blasphemy, and homosexuality werecrimes punishable by death. Virtually any act you can think of has been criminalized by one regime or another. Being a law-abiding citizen only means you comply with whatever rules politicians have imposed on you.
Throughout history we observe only a slight overlap between the endless supply of laws governments impose on people and the handful of acts we all agree are morally wrong: theft, assault, rape, murder.
https://bananas.liberty.me/youre-a-criminal-in-a-mass-surveillance-world-how-to-not-get-caught/
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