What to Be Thankful For

David BoazEndless war. A $28 trillion national debt. Intrusive regulation. Criminal injustice. Presidents who don ’t think the Constitution limits their powers. The rise of illiberalism on both left and right. It’s easy to point to troubling aspects of modern America, and I spend a lot of time doing that. But when a journalist asked me what freedoms we take for granted in America, I found it a good opportunity to step back and consider how America is different from much of world history — and why immigrants still flock here. If we ask how life in the United States is different from life in most of the history of the world — and still different from much of the world — a few key elements come to mind.Rule of law. Perhaps the greatest achievement in history is the subordination of power to law. That is, in modern America we have created structures that limit and control the arbitrary power of government. No longer can one man — a king, a priest, a communist party boss — take another person’s life or property at the ruler’s whim. Citizens can go about their business, generally confident that they won’t be dragged off the streets to disappear forever, and confident that their hard‐​earned property won’t be confiscated without warning. We may take the rule of law for granted, but immigrants from China, Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world know how rare it is.Equality. For most of history peop...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs