More and More of What We Do Depends on Government Permission: New at Reason

Do you have permit for that? If you want to keep that permit, you’d better do as you’re told. Increasingly, that’s the theme of modern America.

More and more of what we do is dependent on permission from the government. That permission, unsurprisingly, is contingent on keeping government officials happy. Rub those officials the wrong way and they’ll strip you of permission to travel the roads, leave the country, or even make a living.

That’s not a recipe for a free country, argues J.D. Tuccille. Too many activities—a growing number—have quietly transformed from rights that we quietly exercise at will into privileges requiring state approval.

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