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Adding Insult to Injury

ByBrian Phillips

Property owners in Maui have suffered tremendously because of the recent wildfires. Now, Hawaii’s governor proposes adding insult to injury. He has directed the state attorney general to draft a moratorium on the sale of damaged properties in Lahaina. The stated goal is to protect property owners from being “victimized” by investors, i.e., protect owners from making bad decisions.

Undoubtedly, the moratorium will prevent some individuals from making rash decisions that they later regret. But that doesn’t justify the governor’s rights-violating proposal. Preventing some individuals from making bad decisions also prevents individuals from making good decisions. The governor’s proposed moratorium prevents all individuals from acting as they deem best for their lives. The governor implies that individuals are too stupid to know what is best for themselves.

Those who desire to sell their property could have a wide variety of reasons. They may not be able to afford to rebuild. They may not want to endure the hassle and time required to rebuild. Even before the firse, some may have planned to sell. Regardless of their reasons, the property owners have a moral right to sell if they so desire. The governor disagrees, believing that he knows what is best for the owners.

This type of paternalism isn’t new. For more than one-hundred years, government officials at every level have sought to protect us from our own choices. The nanny state is present when the Food and Drug Administration determines which drugs we can legally ingest. It was present when state and local governments closed businesses and issued stay-at-home orders. Paternalism exists in every form of regulation, from financial to land-use, from occupational licensing to education. The unwashed masses, government officials imply, are simply too ignorant to be trusted with the freedom to choose.

However, as Ayn Rand pointed out, those same unwashed masses are smart enough to elect the government officials who will issue dictates and prohibitions. We are too ignorant to make choices regarding our own lives, but when it comes time to choose elected officials, we suddenly possess the wisdom of Solomon.

The wildfires have already inflicted enough misery and suffering on property owners. It is both callous and insulting to add insult to their injury.

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