Legislators at all levels of government try to make everything their business.
by Michael Tanner March 2, 2016
Amid the many crucial issues facing this country, lawmakers in some 30 states turned last month to a matter of grave national import: regulating fantasy sports betting. Depending on the state, lawmakers variously seek to ban the popular pastime, to permit it, or to impose regulations such as age restrictions, licensing requirements, and registration fees. All of which raises the obvious question: Why is any of this the government’s business?
One of the complaints that the Founding Fathers leveled against King George III in the Declaration of Independence was that “He has erected a Multitude of New Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their Substance.”
This country was founded on the idea that, under most circumstances, government ought to leave us alone.
But today one just has to look around to realize that government, at every level — federal, state, and local — is, with increasing regularity, inserting itself into every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s our bedroom, our wallet, our medicine cabinet, or our refrigerator, there seems no area of our life that lawmakers don’t believe it is their business to regulate according to their morals, judgment, preferences, or whims.
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