I Would Rather Be Owned

In the midst of the two party conventions lamely attempting to convince us there is something essentially, rather than accidentally, different from one another, it dawned on me that if I am to be ruled by another, I'd prefer to be ruled by someone who assumes they have some sort of property interest in me.
What we seem to have now is the tragedy of the commons. Despite notions of freedom and self-ownership, what we have now are bureaucrats who are not answerable to us, but to other bureaucrats and politicians. So, they have every incentive to take as much as they can. Their access to the cookie jar will only last so long, so they not only take, but they happily put us into debt too.

Some might rightly point out that incentives are one thing, and the intelligence of the owner another. I might get an owner that cannot fathom what to do with me, but then, I've got that now, thanks to our much vaunted 'democracy.' The voice of the rabble has surely been heard, and they cannot understand why handing out more and more worthless degrees to people who don't actually know anything might not only put me at a disadvantage, but imperil their well-being as well. What happens when no one knows how to fix anything any more? We can see clearly, especially in the political realm, that few know how to fix anything, and fewer still appear capable of identifying someone who might be capable figuring anything out.

We are a foolish people who constantly turn to look at the past and assume we are smarter than them. Meanwhile, our relative comfort is due largely to technological advance, not government pronouncements on our status. In whatever manner a king 'owns' his subjects, such an interest is preferable to our present situation because it is possible that a person with such an interest would discover certain principles work best toward a prosperous realm. This is what I imagine the world wars disrupted so terribly in Austria. Praxeology requires a discerning mind- an emperor may or may not understand it, but the rabble most certain do not.

Obviously, I would prefer true freedom, but neither party suggests that this is available to me.