Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

This phrase from the Declaration of Independence has been widely cited in my lifetime as the essence of what freedom in the United States is all about.  It seems to me we all should contemplate this phrase from the declaration of independence when deciding on the proper role of Government.


There is an inherent tension in applying the phrase to an entire country  - what if my pursuit of happiness impinges on the life, liberty or happiness of some other person?  So a fundamental assumption that precedes all government action should be that Government has no power over individual behavior until individual behavior starts impinging on others.  The more direct the impact on others, the more power government has to control behavior.


Many of our current laws don't meet this standard.  Drug use is a primary example of conduct that is almost entirely personal.  If I decide I want to spend my life sitting on my porch smoking marijuana I raise in my backyard, my conduct has no direct impact on anyone else.  But as a society we seem to have great difficulty accepting that freedom must include the freedom to make dumb personal decisions.  So for nearly a century we have waged a war on marijuana consumption that has had little discernible impact on consumption but has taken an enormous toll in money and disruption of peoples lives. 


We tend to err in the other direction with economics and commerce.  Virtually no economic activity takes place that doesn't involve people interacting.  If you go up on the hillside and chop down some tree's there are fewer tree's available for the other residents of the community.   If you manufacture, you need workers, retail requires customers.  Economics should be an area of life where government is actively mediating between competing interests, but our history has been a long struggle between those seeking to find a proper balance of regulation and market anarchists who believe government should stay out of economic affairs.