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If you love your neighbor, set them free
Four quotes by Lysander Spooner to change your thinking.
Today (January 19, 2023) is the 215th birthday of the American thinker Lysander Spooner. His influence on my view of life, ethics, and politics cannot be underestimated. I will present four impactful quotes from him.
- “No one has yet ever dared advocate, in direct terms, so monstrous a principle as that the rich ought to be protected by law from the competition of the poor.”
Spooner said this in protest of a Massachusetts law regarding lawyers. Spooner had never graduated from college, but he studied law for three years under practicing lawyers before opening his own office. This was illegal; college graduates could study law for three years before admission to the bar but non-graduates had to study for five years.
Spooner argued, correctly, that the requirement discriminated against those who could not afford college. He was persuasive, as Massachusetts repealed the requirement.
Regrettably, however, politicians still pass laws and regulations restricting access to certain lines of work. They use fake excuses like “consumer protection.” But the only thing consumers need to be protected from is fraud.
