New Mises Piece and Germany Lets the Big Secret Out

Got an article over at the Ludwig von Mises Institute entitled "Free Jerry Seinfeld!" today.  Here is an excerpt:

The key takeaway from the incident is when the Latham police officer tells the group, "The law requires you to help or assist anyone in danger as long as it's reasonable to do so." This is the essence of what is known as Good Samaritan laws, which require the public to act on the behalf of a victim when witnessing a crime taking place.

The coercion of such laws should immediately strike a nerve for Austro-libertarians. As Walter Block noted,

Good Samaritan laws mandating that people come to the aid of those in trouble (say, an unconscious person) are incompatible with libertarianism.

If the state is capable of forcing citizens to act in lieu of nonaction, then there remains only a very fine line between liberty and slavery. One could argue that no difference at all exists between Good Samaritan laws and laboring under bondage. The rationale behind such laws comes down to the belief that members of the public are obligated to help their fellow citizens. The fact that such obligation comes from the barrel of a government gun goes unacknowledged. Collectivist arguments rarely consider methodological individualism, for it would stick a wrench into the social engineering of the few over the masses. After all, it's always individuals who act, not groups.

According to some of the comments, I confused "Good Samaritan" laws with "Right to Duty" laws.  Upon further induction, it appears that they are right as "Good Samaritan" laws are essentially supposed to protect someone who intervenes to help another from prosecution.  It was my mistake to use them interchangeably.  The problem is, many outlets do use the terms in that manner, including the Seinfeld episode itself.  That isn't an excuse but I just want to point out that I am not alone in this mistake.

While my mistake was disappointing, it looks like the mistake that is the Euro zone is set to become even bigger.  David Brooks let go of a big one today in his New York Times column in reference to the original formation process of the Eurozone:

Then there was the elitism. Off the record, Europe’s technocrats would say the most blatantly condescending things: History had taught them that Europe’s peoples were not to be trusted and government should be run from the top by people like themselves.

Ah yes, the state at it's foremost and delusional core.  One of the key attributes of Leviathan is that despite its previous interventions causing unnecessary consequences, it will more often than not attempt a bigger power grab to rectify its previous failure.  Via The Telegraph:

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is today expected to tell David Cameron that Britain does not need a referendum on EU treaty changes, despite demands from senior Conservatives for more powers to be repatriated to Britain.

The leaked memo, written by the German foreign office, discloses radical plans for an intrusive new European body that will be able to take over the economies of beleaguered eurozone countries.

It discloses that the EU’s largest economy is also preparing for other European countries, which are too large to be bailed out, to default on their debts — effectively going bankrupt. It will prompt fears that German plans to deal with the eurozone crisis involve an erosion of national sovereignty that could pave the way for a European “super state” with its own tax and spending plans set in Brussels.

Britain would be relegated to a new outer group of EU members who are not in the single currency. Mr Cameron will today travel to Brussels and Berlin for tense negotiations with Mrs Merkel amid growing disagreement between the leaders over how to deal with the eurozone.

Oh, the technocrats are marching alright; right off the cliff of despotism known as New World Order.  The governments of the PIIGS have proven wholly inadequate at not doing their jobs.  That is to say, politicians have been so successful at kicking the fiscal can down the road, it's time for technocrats not beholden to voter approval to take the monetary future of the billions in their over-confident hands.  This meant replacing the Greece and Italy Prime Ministers with banker cronies.  It also means European Central Bank President "Super" Mario Draghi will pull a Ben Bernanke and start telling governments how to behave, via BusinessWeek:

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pushed back against politicians and investors asking him to do more to end the sovereign debt crisis, expressing impatience with leaders’ failure to act.

The ECB would quickly lose credibility if it departed from its primary role of keeping prices stable, Draghi said in a speech in Frankfurt today. “Where is the implementation” of government pledges to bolster the region’s rescue fund, he asked. “We should not be waiting any longer.”

 When Angela Merkel admitted that Germany needed to cede a bit of sovereignty to save the euro, she meant it.  Mish weights in with some spectacular comments over at the Keiser Report around the 12 minute mark:

And the sideshow continues.