Ten things you could do in
1975 you can’t do today because America is much less free:
1. You could buy an
airline ticket and fly without ever showing an ID.
2. You could buy cough
syrup without showing an ID.
3. You could buy and sell
gold coins without showing an ID.
4. You could buy a gun
without showing an ID.
5. You could pull as much
cash out of your bank account without the bank filing a report with the
government.
6. You could get a job
without having to prove you were an American.
7. You could buy
cigarettes without showing an ID.
8. You could have a phone
conversation without the government knowing who you called and who called you.
9. You could open a stock
brokerage account without having to explain where the money came from.
10. You could open a
Swiss bank account with ease. All Swiss banks were willing and happy to open
accounts for Americans.
There are thousands of other examples. The
monitoring is in place; all that is required from here is the clampdown.
The differences, between now and 1975 in the
business sector are even more prevalent. In recent years, in industry after
industry regulations and prohibitions have been poured on top of free markets.
It doesn’t look like things will get any better in years to come. Eventually,
the economy will suffocate and collapse, if this continues.
I would add some more to the list:
11. In California, you could smoke in a bar.
12. In Michigan, where I lived then, you could
buy alcohol at age 18.
13. You could buy a “gas guzzler” car, like
the classic 1976 Buick 225.
14. If you were a child, you could play
soldier, or cops and robbers, or cowboys and Indians with real looking plastic
guns — instead of the ugly, bright-colored ones mandated today.
15. You could be politically incorrect.
16. You could attend a public school that
didn’t look like, and operate like, a prison.
17. You could go to a pro baseball game and
get an actual bat on “Bat Day.”
18. You could be an energetic boy without
getting pumped full of Ritalin.
19. You could blast off an Estes model rocket
in any vacant lot, especially a school’s.
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- See more at:
http://calwatchdog.com/2013/09/03/we-are-much-less-free-than-in-1975/#sthash.E3MHBD0s.dpuf
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Economic Policy Journal
list by John Seiler
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