"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Preamble, the Federal mission statement, divided sovereignty with one mandate and one prohibition:

  • Mandated is the obligation to "provide" for defense.
    • The Federal government is granted unlimited taxing powers for the limited monopoly of violence (sovereignty) to wage war and prevent paths to war.
  • Restricted is the duty to only "promote the general welfare."
    • The powers enumerated to Congress in Article 1, Section 8 are subordinated to the Preamble.
  • Amendments 9 and 10 restate the Divided Sovereignty of the Preamble:
    • Amendment 9: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
    • Amendment 10: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

"We the People" retain sovereignty over the general welfare.

Two aspects of our Liberty intertwine in a Darwinian crucible of creative destruction to create the "general welfare":

  • Tolerance of Disruptive Minorities offering choices.
    • There are few Disruptive Minorities as tiny and disruptive as inventors. An "obnoxious individual" creates a better choice that eclipses entire industries.
  • Tolerance of people sorting choices via free markets and free speech, the Wisdom of the Many.
    • Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is not invisible, just tiny. It is the vast accumulation of tiny acts of liberty by each of us as we choose between choices.
    • The aggregated wisdom of all of us, with each of us acting in our own self-interest, is wiser than the wisest of us at choosing between choices.