As an aspiring homesteader, I am increasingly disillusioned with the government as I learn more and more.

I have long contended that, while it is morally wrong for a man to steal, it is a greater moral offense to remove from a man his means of self sufficiency and demand he indenture himself to you to get it back. And yet, this is precisely what the American government has done over the course of its history. Masses of immigrants arrived on our shore to find a new hope, and a new future for their family. They were enticed by the offers of free or ridiculously cheap land from a nation that had what seemed at the time a virtually unlimited supply.

And yet, they found a new form of slavery in the government that promised freedom. Homesteading lands were embezzled by the unsatiable greed of Congress, and laws were enacted that served only to restrict homesteaders from achieving a dream of self sufficiency. In essence, this made them slaves of the state, putting them to work in industries that produced revenue to fill the government coffers.

Then the concept of income tax came about, and we were further indentured. Property tax and eminent domain laws further served to ensure that even if we had the illusion of land ownership, we could never fully be free from the yoke of government oppression. Such laws would not be an undue hardship if a man had control over the land he "owned", and could use the product of his own labor to pay his taxes; after all, taxes are a necessary evil to run a government. Environmental laws, while having their genesis in reasonable stewardship of land, became overly judicious and restricted further the options that we had with our own properties. Water and mineral rights allowed further intrusion; you can own the land, but many times have no claim to its contents (in a case I can cite, the community of Pahrump, Nevada sits on top of a large underground aquifer. While many residents are properly zoned for a well, the fact that they don't hold the water rights means they must be reliant on the municipal water supply).

It is time for real, meaningful change that will restore this country to the great land our forefathers envisioned. We can only do this through a minarchist federal government and restoring autonomy to state, county, and municipal governments as originally intended.