How Law Abiding Should a Person Be?

As laws and bureaucratic rules with the force of laws have multiplied in the last dozen or so years under both Democrats and Republicans, the question of how law abiding a person should be has become more important.  A person should of course obey laws against committing actual crimes, not because of the laws but because such acts are crimes.   (He should also refrain from committing crimes  the law permits, such as forcing people who do  not want to do so to provide him with goods or services under duress.) He should obey laws that may exist enjoining sensible behavior, again not because of the laws but because the behavior is sensible. He should willingly pay taxes to an amount representing a reasonable proration of the costs of the proper functions of the government of a free society, but should have  no ethical compulsion to cough up anything more. Beyond this he should obey the rules and dictates of politicians and bureaucrats only when he wants to or in cases where and to the extent that they may send armed agents to do bad things to him if he doesn’t.  In fact he should learn to ignore them as much as he can. Homosexuals living in places where their marriages are not recognized by politician should go ahead and marry if they want and not be too concerned what the scoundrels in the legislatures think. Traditional religious peoples living in places where marriages between homosexuals are recognized by politicians should have whatever opinions of these marriages they like and not be too concerned about what the scoundrels in the legislatures think. Grasping politicians and bureaucrats matter to an honest person only to the degree he and others cannot avoid them. They and their opinions have no larger significance.

The tasks for people wanting to live in a freer society are to reduce the power and size of governments and to make it more difficult functionally for people in governments to do them harm. The second will probably be easier than the first at  least in the short run. The rules often have strong constituencies among conservatives, leftists, or both, and Obama has two more years. However it should be possible to unite libertarians and the better sorts of conservatives and leftists to take action against  the unconscionable increases in government’s snooping, spying, and surveillance  during the last few years. We have both the Constitution and simple decency and right on our side. We certainly should try. If they don’t see us, they can’t hit us.