Dignity vs. Dependence: Are you prepared for liberty?

"20. Cultivate some Mormon friends."
--Claire Wolfe, 101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution

Most Utahns are familiar with the wise practice of setting aside a basic supply of food and water, and some money.

Why? To insure against crises -- whether natural or man-made.

Granted, federal and state bureaucracies have been raising the cost -- and the fear-mongering -- for Americans who want to live without government assistance or interference, especially in times of crisis.

The author of the book Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control Over the Lives of Ordinary Americans, Boise State University professor of economics Charlotte Twight, offers one explanation why:

[G]overnment officeholders, as individuals, have strong incentives to alter important political transaction costs facing the public and facing others in government in order to secure more of what they want with less resistance.
...
[G]overnment officials often take deliberate steps to increase the information costs to private citizens (and to each other) of accurately perceiving measures that change the scope of government authority.
...
[G]overnment officials often take deliberate steps to increase agreement and enforcement costs to private citizens of taking collective political action on measures that change the scope of government authority. For instance, when government officials spread the costs of a measure while concentrating its benefits, when they pursue incremental strategies for political change, when they tie controversial measures to more popular legislative proposals, when they differentially burden third political parties, and when they alter the locus of decisionmaking authority so as to shift the transaction-cost burden of changing the government's role, they increase the costs to private citizens of taking collective action to resist proposed changes in government authority.

Deliberate government actions that increase constitutional-level political transaction costs thus drive a wedge between people's preferences and the political expression of those preferences.

--"Medicare's Origin: The Economics and Politics of Dependency," Cato Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, Winter 1997 (PDF file).

Both federal and state governments in North America have been providing preparedness information and services.

To preserve both individual liberty -- and the ability to resist the temptations put forward by statist dependency pushers in times of crisis -- civil society offers many voluntary ways to prepare for adversity.

Freesteader.com offers an online discussion board with a libertarian perspective on "Preparedness Basics."

SurvivalBlog.com has been providing good preparedness advice for individuals since January 2006, and Disaster-Resource.com addresses crisis preparedness and management from an organizational perspective.

Some Utah-based businesses that market packaged food reserves and supplies for emergencies include:

Nitro-Pak Preparedness Center (Logan)

Emergency Essentials (Orem and Salt Lake)

Survival Solutions (Layton and Springville)

The American Civil Defense Association is an educational and membership organization that recently moved its headquarters to Draper, and offers an online course in disaster readiness.

And Utahn Daniel Newby shares more good advice on preparedness at The Helmsman Society's web site.

The voluntary relationships you establish while developing your preparedness routine will help strengthen the community that Americans must continually cultivate to remain free.

You don't have to overdo it; a moderate amount of preparedness can help you protect both yourself and what you value in a crisis.