We do not read the Bible the way the founders did, nor the classics of Greece and Rome at all. Both sources speak of a radical freedom otherwise unknown in their times, albeit for those who were citizens. Slavery was a integral part and presumed necessity in those cultures, but history has proven otherwise.
Vestiges of the radical freedoms bequeathed to us are everywhere in USA. I consider them sorts of pressure valves that keep the creative in place, and in essence buys us off when things are wrong.
Probably the most important item fairly unique to USA is our right to arm ourselves. In my own lifetime I have seen USA go from where nobody particularly cared if another was armed to where an armed person is presumed guilty. althought there has been some legal curtailment of self-protection, the degeneration of this right is largely socially conditioned.
Personally I am not into guns, I go the other way, nonviolence. Another great pressure valve is nobody has to be drafted or join the military in USA. If you are a conscientious objector, you do not have to serve. People who object to certain wars are not conscientious objectors. If you truly object to all wars, then you can opt out.
Taxes are very objectionable, and you can largely avoid them without too much trouble, and with a lot of trouble avoid them completely (grow your own food in the wilderness). As I’ve outlined previously, being self-employed allows great opportunity to avoid taxes, as intended in the tax codes. Gummint wants businesses, and when it realluy needs money, they go after employees and property owners anyway. What they miss from us they don’t really need.
The Amish have been exempt from Social Security taxes in USA, so this is avoidable too.
In USA you can publish anything you want, althugh just about all distribution is under government control.
In many countries you can be fined or even jailed if you do not vote. Such laws are enforced in Australia and Argentina, and on the books but not enforced in Belgium and Turkey. This list of countries that punish you for not voting is long. In USA there is no obligation to vote.
For legal matters we are free to settle our disputes outside of court. Where we are obliged to come to court, we may represent ourselves, pro se, and the law is judges are supposed to cut us slack if we are not lawyers. All lawyers are government workers in essence, and their work is a direct tax on citizens. You can avoid falling into their trap and games by representing yourself in court.
And while on the topic of courts, juries are never obliged to convict anyone, even if the person is guilty. There are plenty of laws that are just stupid, like 3-strikes -your -out, marijuana laws, and securities regulations. Any jury can perform what is called “jury nullification” and overthrow the government in that given instance.
At the same time, citizens can form a government in USA. there are thousands of governments in each state: port authorities, water districts, parks, all formed, maintained and beholden only to their voters.
Of course in USA you are free to pick any religion you want, or make one up, or have none of it. Not so in many countries. In Germany once you pick a religion, the government tithes you to support it.
In USA you can move. If you do not like where you are, then split. You can even leave the country.
Failry unique to USA is anyone can import and export without license (technically there is an export license, but it is more a check than a permission), you do not even have to be a citizen to import and export in USA.
You can make own booze.
You can home school, although that is being curtailed.
What made USA unique was a radical freedom, that has been reduced over the last generation. But it started a long time ago, for example, after the US War between the states, the US Constitution was changed to make slavery expressly permitted.
The government now has a monopoly on currency via us treasury and a central bank that fiddles with interest rates and fosters moral hazards.
The taxes are inherently evil, but not the big problem. The big problem is the taxes pay for people to crush freedom through subsidies and regulations. The problm is not deregulation, because there is no such thing, the problem is any regulation, because regulation is necessarily a process of picking winners and loswrs, something only a market should do. A few government workers cannot substitute themselves for millions of daily signals between buyers and sellers.
We have lost a lot, and are losing more each day. Students cannot bankrupt their way out of bad decisions made while teens (student loans), and we cannot avoid being assaulted when getting on an airplane. A people who will tolerate these will tolerate anything.
