The January 22, 2009 Colorado Springs Gazette published one of my LTEs on government regulation vs. personal responsibility. It’s the 5th one down:

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
Government paternalism saps desire to make own decisions

I want to thank The Gazette for the nice discussion of individual responsibility in Monday’s paper (“People responsible for safety,” Our View). Too many adult Americans expect the government to treat them as if they were still children and the government was their parents.

It’s only a small step from the government telling you what kind of houses you can build to telling you what food you can eat or what books you can read.

When citizens start asking the government do their thinking for them, it makes them easy prey for demagogues and dictators. That’s why this kind of government paternalism is so dangerous.

Paul Hsieh, Sedalia

It was in response to their own January 16, 2009 OpEd opposing more government home safety regulations, “People responsible for safety“.

Although it’s important to oppose bad ideas, it’s even more important to support good ideas. I’m glad to have had this opportunity to do so.