The timing is ripe for paid sick leave to become a statewide right in New Jersey, where more than 1.2 million workers don’t get to stay home when they’re under the weather. Catching a cold shouldn't force the state’s most vulnerable workers to choose between staying healthy and staying employed.
The Left likes to characterize freedom—where government protects but does not violate rights through regulations and controls—as analogous to the lawless "Wild West." I've taken that charge and thrown it back at them with these comments:
Another good cause. Another law.
But what is law? It is force; i.e., a gun. Disobey the law, and you will be arrested, fined, imprisoned. This is legitimate when government sticks to its proper function of apprehending and punishing criminals; i.e, those who aggressively initiate force against others.
But what happens when government inverts that purpose, and becomes the aggressor? It becomes, in effect, the criminal. That is essentially all that laws such as mandated sick days are. When you say, "I believe people should do this or that, so 'there ought to be a law,'" you are saying "I have a right to impose my values on others at the point of a gun."
This is what the editors are advocating here. This practice of using government as a tool for forcibly imposing one's values on others is rampant. It's the Wild West manifested in politics, where do-gooder gunslingers fight politely to impose their values under cover of law. If you want a microcosm of what's wrong with this country, read this editorial carefully. You will see the gun behind the editors' back. Ever wonder why American politics is so "polarized?" This is why. America has become a nation of gunslingers.
Employers and employees have a right to negotiate employment terms by voluntary agreement to mutual benefit. Legally forcing employers to grant sick days is the gunslinger at work. What right does anyone have to force those who create and maintain jobs to act against their own values and judgment, after a worker has already agreed to terms that don't include sick days? Because some voters want it? Because some politicians voted for it? What's essentially different than a mob boss "making an offer a businessman can't refuse," lest his business be shot up or his knees blown out? Either way, a person who has harmed no one is being forced at gun point.
These kinds of mandates are rampant. We'll never have a decent society until we rid our politics of Wild West tactics: We should all agree that no one has the right to impose his values on others, and that the government's proper function is to protect us from criminals, not become the tool of criminality. We need gun control, alright—for the government.
Related Reading:
Does Freedom Equal "The Wild West"?
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