Yielding our freedom to the government is risky – Des Moines Register

Erin Kokemiller, Iowa View contributor Published 9:47 a.m. CT April 24, 2020

Carlene Nelson, co-owner of Retreat Spa and Salon in Georgia demonstrated what safety measures she put in place as her business prepares to reopen. Augusta Chronicle

The government does not exist to save you and it cannot save you. It exists to ensure that we maintain our natural rights, but it cant shelter us from risks. If weve come to find comfort and safety in the governments regulation of liberty during this pandemic, we are headed for some unintended and very unpleasant consequences.

When we force businesses to close and people to stay home, we encounter two problems. First, we promote government as a saving power. The longer the shutdown, the more dependent we become on the government. The government becomes the provider of all our essential needs because we are not able to provide for ourselves.

Maybe youre someone who doesnt necessarily see a problem with that, but look at it this way: The more we depend on government, the more it has control over us. Do you really want the same government thatcant balance itsown budget to be in charge of yours?

The second problem of a government-mandated shutdown is that we easily forget the long-term consequences of our short-term behavior and policy. Weve all made rash and regretful decisions when we were panicking. Overwhelming emotion tends to make us shortsighted, but it doesnt mean our actions wont have unintended, long-term consequences. In times of panic, it is important to act quickly, yet mindfully. This pandemic will not be the only trial we face this year (as individuals or as a country). We shouldnt let our response to one threat make our citizens and nation so weak that we could not overcome another problem.

This is not to say that the U.S. should have continued business as usual. It makes sense that businesses who can be just as productive by having their employees work from home would do so. This is common sense but you cant legislate common sense. The problem here is that weve thrown personal responsibility and individual freedom out the window.

In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson used a Latin phrase that has a famous English translation: I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery. Individual freedom means that my employer chooses for himself whether he stays open. It means I choose whether or not I want to take the risk and continue to work. Its easy for celebrities and millionaires to tell everybody to stay home theyre not at risk of losing housing or the ability to buy groceries. But if my employer has taken the risk to stay open and I find the risk of working to be less than the risk of not working, then I should be able to work. Likewise, I can choose if I want to physically go into a business or not. In this situation, no one is forcefully being put at risk and everyone gets to weigh the risks for themselves.

Lets not let the panic of this pandemic strip us of our freedom or cause us to neglect the long-term. Any liberty we give up will be hard to get back. The government cannot and will not save you from all harm thats your job.

Erin Kokemiller(Photo: Special to the Register)

Erin Kokemiller is an undergraduate economics student at Iowa State University from Boone.

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Yielding our freedom to the government is risky - Des Moines Register