[thegrimmest]

It is a moral axiom:

> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...

[Apocryphon]

And how are children, as men, not also created equal, yet still subject to paternalism?

[thegrimmest]

I think children are excluded from the definition of "men".

[Apocryphon]

Surely not by the above moral axiom.

[thegrimmest]

Surely by it. I would struggle to find a precedent where children are considered equal to adults, and not subject to their authority. In fact my whole point is we shouldn't treat adults the same way we do children.

[Apocryphon]

Why is it authoritarian and condescending for a government to provide service and address societal problems, but no less authoritarian or condescending for a government to be in the business of protecting the rights that any self-respecting freeholder should be ready and willing to do so?

[thegrimmest]

Because that self same freeholder should be ready and willing to negotiate with others to provide whatever goods and services he needs. He shouldn't need a third party to intervene on his behalf, and, knowing that depriving anyone of freedom deprives him as well, should be loathe to apply force to compel the other free party he is negotiating with to meet his terms.