Given recent events in Chicago, I think it appropriate to reflect on why governments exist. The primary purpose of government is to preserve public safety and order. Mayor Johnson seems to have lost track of that. Governments are not primarily jobs programs, methods of housing and feeding migrants, or ways of picking winners and losers. All of those can be done in other ways but only government is authorized to preserve public safety and order.
By far the best way to inculcate good behavior in young people is to instill consciences in them. They should do the right thing because it is the right thing. If they don’t have consciences, young offenders need to be restrained. That isn’t “demonizing” them, as Mayor Johnson likes to put it. It’s acknowledging reality and the first responsibility of government.
So how is that materially different from this:
“The primary purpose of government is to preserve public safety and order. Mayor Johnson seems to have lost track of that. Governments are not primarily jobs programs, methods of housing and feeding migrants, or ways of picking winners and losers. All of those can be done in other ways but only government is authorized to preserve public safety and order.”
I know of no other institution that has more power to affect, and exercises more influence on, the diminishment of liberty than government. And most non-government actors engaged in that activity use government to accomplish their goals.