Mr. President over at Textual Relations has an interesting post regarding the notion of the “right to privacy”. I hear a lot about the “right to privacy” and also the phrase, “giving up our personal freedoms” these days.

Exactly what is the “right to privacy” and what are these “personal freedoms”.

When I talk to people I know personally, they aren’t concerned about losing the right to free speech, the right to assemble or eminent domain. A few folks I know are concerned about gun laws but, for the most part, people I know, are concerned about things like wire-tapping, access to internet usage, probable cause, employer drug testing and background checks.

There are a couple of big elephants in this big room. I think a lot of people like to use drugs, buy and sell drugs over the phone, and look up porn on the internet. Now, I may run in a different circle than you do but, this is what I have observed. I think that these are the personal freedoms that get people worked up. It’s not sold that way but, that’s what it is. Why would the average cat be concerned about wire-tapping? What is he saying over the phone that could cause problems if, for some reason, the government tapped his phone? I have never had one conversation with one person about illegal search and seizure that, did not have drugs in his house.

These are the hot buttons; the things that get people worked up.

Whether you agree with that assessment or not, if you are concerned about the “right to privacy” and/or “personal freedoms”, it will be interesting to see what happens in Arizona next year.

On January 1st it will be officially against the law for an Arizona employer to hire illegal immigrants. As a bonus it will be a watch dog type of situation where concerned citizens can report offending employers. It’s a tough law where the second offense results in the employer being shut down.

Right now, illegal immigrants are leaving the state because of the impending changes. The result will be a surplus of jobs and a lack of workers to fill them.

Here’s the thing about some of these “personal freedoms”, the movement to take them away from you was started in the private sector. Those are the employers that drug test, run background checks and credit checks.

What may very well happen in Arizona is a situation where an employer will hire you even though they know that you smoke a little weed, have three D.U.I’s in your past and horrible credit. Some jobs, require more responsibility than others. You don’t want a welder who is building airplanes to have cocaine in his system. The insurance company won’t allow that.

A number of things can happen. Jobs that require more responsible personnel will pay more or, those jobs could leave the state. I can even picture a scenario where pot becomes further legalized as it may become more apparent that a lot of people do indulge and that there are actually jobs that exist that those people can handle quite well.

All speculation of course; what’s your opinion? Can the government protect your personal freedoms? Can private industry take away your personal freedoms?

Will Arizona inadvertently begin to define those personal freedoms?

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