America is about freedom. A free people naturally pull themselves upward, and an entire nation moves forward both economically and culturally. Great freedom, when coupled with a minimal and transparent government, brings rapid economic progress and shrinks the percentage of people living in poverty faster than any planned economy could ever approach. And a vast middle class emerges and affluence becomes the norm. Life is good.

With freedom comes democracy. A free people are free to choose their leaders. A just, democratic government treats people the same as much as possible. Equal treatment in policies, and equality before the law, are hallmarks of good government. And a free people are free to petition and alter their government. These alterations can be worthy, and lead to social progress, or they can be unworthy and slow down the natural upward mobility of citizens and society.

Unfortunately, in the US today there are forces working to reduce our freedom, to relentlessly increase the size and power of government, and to make the government less transparent. This is driven by a diverse assortment of special interest groups that petition the government to channel special benefits to them at the expense of everyone else. These special benefits for special interests violate the principle of equal treatment by government that is essential for a healthy and just society.

As the 21st century begins, a vast entanglement of special privileges, benefits, and subsidies exists that alter the incentive & disincentive landscape for citizens (and businesses) as they go about their daily tasks. It is no longer just about picking a path for yourself that your freedom and creativity naturally offer up to you. Now, for most citizens (and businesses), a sweepstakes of special benefits offered up by government must be considered also. While citizens don’t base life decisions wholly on these artificial incentives, they gnaw at the edges of our decision-making and influence behavior.

Often these new considerations of government benefits lead to bad life choices for citizens. In our society today, government has created significant speed bumps in the path to upward mobility for many citizens. A speed bump exists when some citizens get treated differently by government than others. A speed bump for you may exist because someone else got a special benefit that you have to pay for; thus their benefit is an obstacle to you. But, often more important, is that the benefits themselves create speed bumps.

The benefits lull beneficiaries into behavior that is often counterproductive to their long term success in life. As a result they make life choices that slow down their upward mobility - even if at the time the choices appeared to be helping them. These speed bumps slow down the entire country and also diminish or damage many individual lives along the way, especially among the poor.

Upward mobility, both real and perceived, is a key to a healthy society. When people begin making choices that thwart their freedom-propelled upward mobility, everyone loses. NoSpeedBumps.com is dedicated to exposing these speed bumps and offering policy reforms to tear them down. For some freedom-based reform proposals, see the NoSpeedBumps Slides to Change America.

Beyond the speed bumps that materialize because people get “differential treatment” by government, in a larger sense, it can be said that speed bumps are any government-created impediment to the full exercise of our freedoms. Excessive taxes and regulations, newfound “economic rights” and “social rights” that compete with our established freedoms, lawsuit permissiveness, and so on create speed bumps that are general barriers to economic and social progress. NoSpeedBumps.com wants to tear down these types of speed bumps too.

At a world perspective, NoSpeedBumps.com is about expanding freedom and good government in both the U.S. and abroad. With freedom and good government comes prosperity and peace. With prosperity and peace still elusive in many parts of the world, there is plenty to discuss.