Lao Tzu's Laws In The Usa

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The term “helicopter parent” describes a parent that knows about everything their child does and controls their lives to make them grow up how the parent wants. I believe that the United States of America’s government is much like this. It holds laws over the U.S. citizens that cross the boundary into personal affairs. Lao-Tzu, a philosopher, believed that a government should lead by not leading. The U.S. government has laws that Lao-Tzu would disagree with because they intrude into the personal lives of its citizens. He would not consider certain laws acceptable, an example is the law the United States has that if there are children present an adult cannot smoke in their car, and that females are required to have a descriptive ultrasound before…show more content…
According to the Tao-te Ching, the government should not have the right to create a law that meddles with what people can do in their personal spaces. I believe that this is a gross invasion of privacy and misuse of the government’s power. I do not think it is appropriate to control the lives of the people to this extent. Besides, a personal car is private property where the owner should be able to set the rules for that space. Since they own the space the government should not have the right to change how they act in that car. Not to mention that it changes how thousands of Americans spend their longer car rides. Tao-te Ching expresses that a government should, “Act for the peoples benefit. Trust them; leave them alone.” (Lao-Tzu 214). The United States of America, however, looks into the lives of its citizens and sets laws that inhibit the inhabitations, which is not what Lao-Tzu believes. This is why I believe that the American government is a “helicopter” government, because it controls the lives of those under it by creating intrusive laws. Lao-Tzu viewed government as being run in a very different manner, that the government should not place these types of laws on its people. Instead it should let them rule themselves. There would, unfortunately, be problems with that philosophy in today’s

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