Let’s get one thing clear.
- I care for the people less fortunate.
- The government has no role in that caring.
Okay, that’s two, but the second is important. The government has a role. And that role is to act as the referee in disputes. It is to make sure that we all face the same rules and laws. Sure, there is a cost in maintaining a government, so we tax to pay for it. But that role of government is not meant to take money from those who have it and just flat out GIVE it to those who don’t.
When that role is given to the government, bad things happen. Really bad things.
It creates incentives that aren’t natural. People begin to look for ways to avoid paying their taxes and people begin to look for ways to maximize their TAKE of people’s taxes. Neither system works well.
When people slide around money to avoid taxes, the revenues realized aren’t as high as expected, so taxes are raised. While generating the income, it increases the incentive to defraud the government. This further punishes the honest man at the benefit of the crook. Further, taxes relieve a man of his property. What the government takes is first private property.
People forget this.
The money being taken first belonged to someone who earned it. Confiscation of that property should be done with significant reluctance.
Most importantly, by taking one man’s property and giving it to another, the second man is less incented to earn his own. Life becomes simply a series of cons and loopholes meant to get through today. We lose the productivity of the second man and the power of the money had it been spent in more productive ways.
We lose on both sides.
And this is a perfect illustration: Hat Tip Say Anything Blog
Some highlights:
- 0:08 Do you need a tissue?
- 0:26 – You can’t find no job they give you money to live on.
- 0:44 – The furrowed brow. This will be a hilarious recurring theme.
- 1:12 – I spent it on myself.
- 1:35 – The you’re stealing that money. BOOM!
- 1:36 – No! See tissue above.
- 2:32 – $22,000! Per year!
- 3:15 – My conversation is rent…
- 3:24 – I’m 21.
- 4:24 – I’m me!
- 4:30 – That’s what were creating.
- 4:49 – Sending this tape to Congress.
- 5:00 – As taxpayers, we have spent at least $70,000.
- 5:10 – I appreciate that Judge Judy…Note he can’t keep a straight face.
- 5:45 – $70,000 right down the sewer.
I’m not sure if the end makes me laugh or cry. She was actually suing him for rent.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share two of my favorite quotes.
“[T]he more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
-Benjamin Franklin
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” – Dr. Adrian Rogers
MJBruchmann said:
Well said!
A lot of poverty in America has been completely wiped out because citizens cared enough to vote for a government that would help. Education has expanded opportunity for millions, who have made better lives. The kind of poverty that dotted the country in the 40s and 50s was erradicated in the 60s and 70s, thanks to government programs. Children otherwise condemned to a life of little or no opportunity found themselves able to prosper.
Government has a role if the people choose to give it a role, and when they have it has helped millions and created a more prosperous country. Now, that doesn’t mean any government action is good, nor does it mean just handing out money to redistribute is good; I think any aid has to be to ‘help people help themselves’ with a goal of helping people become productive members of society. When government is not involved deep class divisions emerge and continue over time as the winners stack the game in their favor. The far left goes too far, our current system needs reform, but to dismiss government as being able to play a role also goes too far.
A lot of poverty in America has been completely wiped out
Not only are there fewer poor people, but the people who are poor are massively better off.
because citizens cared enough to vote for a government that would help.
Perhaps. I think you touch on it below.
Children otherwise condemned to a life of little or no opportunity found themselves able to prosper.
This is resonate with. For a free market to function, it requires “free will actors”. And kids aren’t free in that sense. They’re unable to determine if they should go to school, doctors or eat many times. I totally agree that government should step in where children are concerned.
After all, thousands of kids are born to Democrats through no fault of their own! 😉
Government has a role if the people choose to give it a role
Ummm…not totally true. We have rules in place that protect people from a government gone too far. There are roles of government.
The far left goes too far, our current system needs reform, but to dismiss government as being able to play a role also goes too far.
Probably true.