Barney Frank: Enemy of Total Freedom

“I would let people gamble on the Internet,” Frank said. “I would let adults smoke marijuana; I would let adults do a lot of things, if they choose."

He added: “But allowing them total freedom to take on economic obligations that spill over into the broader society? The individual is not the only one impacted here, when bad decisions get made in the economic sphere, it causes problems.” [link]

Interesting how he can allow some freedoms and not others. Freedom is not as easy as pick and choose Barney Rubble. Freedom also comes with responsibility, you make a bad choice your likely to get bit on the ass by it later on. Prime example was forcing banks to make loans in all areas where they operate. Forget about low-income families living in these areas, just force the banks to make the loans then swallow the losses. That is what has gotten us in this mess.

In the past a family, individual, whatever goes in for a loan and the bank would pretty much know if they could make payments or not. If you could wonderful sign by the X and give us $XXXXX each month. If you couldn't sorry, "You need a larger down payment." Or, "You may want to think about something more in your price range."

Freedom works by guiding individuals to make choices that are best for them, because they will get rewards from good choices, and quite the opposite from poor choices. Yes, in a way poor decisions have got us into this trouble, however in the past these decisions would not have been allowed to take place to start with.