The Great Lie
The entire statist economic policy is based on a lie and everything our current government is doing, and has done in recent memory, is based on that lie. Therefore it will not accomplish the goals stated publicly by our politicians. The lie is this. If there is a problem, a government solution is the best solution. If we are in a recession and people are unemployed, the problem is government has not done enough to ensure that everyone has a job. If there are poor people, it is because government has not done enough to help them out of poverty. If cars are accelerating by themselves, it is because government has not had enough regulation and oversight of the car making process. If businesses are not hiring, it is because they are greedy capitalists who are squeezing their current employees and don’t care about the needs of others and therefore government has to force them to hire people or take their profits and give them to those who will. If people are too lazy or stupid to save for their future or take care of themselves in the present, it is government's job to force them to save and make them safe.
Here is an unequivocal statement. Government cannot create wealth, it is impossible. The only thing government can do is create a safe and just environment in which wealth can be created. Here is another true statement. Government cannot solve social problems. Every time it tries it makes them worse. Freedom creates a moral and prosperous environment because in the long run, it is in the best interest of everyone to be fair, honest and responsible in their dealings with one another. This is because in order to provide for myself, I need to convince someone else that what I can produce through my labor or my ideas has enough value that it is worthy of being traded for my necessities. If I try to cheat or steal, it may work once or twice but eventually, no one will want to trade with me and I will starve. If I have alienated my family through base and immoral behavior, I will not have any “safety net” if I hit a rough spot or become too old to produce adequately for my own needs.
Enter government. Someone at some point decides that he will expand the role of government beyond securing safety and justice for the citizens and “help” the less fortunate. Sounds good on the surface. Government looks at some who are successful and decide they have more than they need and government could use that excess to help those who don’t have as much. Government has now changed the whole game. To meet his needs, the citizen no longer has to convince his fellow of the value of his labor or ideas, he only needs to convince government that he is worthy of the value another has produced. Government, which produces no value or wealth in itself, then pulls out the guns and takes from the productive to give it to the less or non-productive. The way to prosperity is no longer hard work, honesty or responsible behavior but doing whatever it takes to convince government of need. The individual’s primary concern is no longer his community or even his family, it becomes his relationship to government. If he is poor, he doesn’t go to friends or family for a little help, he goes to government and feels resentment toward the “rich” whose duty, he believes, is to meet his need. If he’s rich, he resents having his charity forced and feels resentment toward the poor. Voila, class warfare. Choices that once had negative consequences are subsidized. Families and communities break down, public morality vanishes and the whole process creates more “victims” who cry to the government for redress. These principles apply to businesses as well as individuals. Business pay “protection” and use the power of government to crush competition.
The longer this process goes on, the greater the number of victims and the fewer the producers from whom tribute is exacted. Eventually, the victim actually becomes one, a victim of a government that has reduced them to ignorance and serfdom. The victim has been reduced to begging and knows nothing else. What happens when everyone’s a victim? Who pays then? What happens when the amount of money looted from the productive becomes so great production is no longer worth the effort? When the government coffers are empty, to whom will the victim turn? From whom will he get his sustenance? When the mob of immoral looters are no longer being pacified by government plunder, will they not devour the remaining carcass of society in a orgy of mindless rage?
I have written this “lesson” because we are nearing that result. There is talk of a “conservative” revival. I fear that means very different things to different people. To some it means stopping out of control government spending and keeping the government from gaining even more control through any new programs. They are “conserving”, to some degree or another, the status quo. Some want to “conserve” it as it was five years ago, some want to “conserve” it as it was under President Reagan. Then there are those who want “limited” government, which also means different things to different people. Some want to eliminate things like the Department of Education and others the Great Society programs. Personally, I don’t want to “conserve” anything in government that is outside the specific parameters of basic justice and security.
The reason is this. The Bible says that a “little leaven works its way through the whole loaf.” One cannot have a “little” socialism any more than one can be a “little” pregnant. The first time the government decides to give a special favor to one at the expense of another, the first time it becomes acceptable to take the results of the production of one and give it to another, the precedent is set. Once the “victim” class is established for one, for whatever reason, there is no fundamental objection to applying that designation to anyone else. There is no objective standard to define “need” because “need” is defined by the whim of government. What is “poor”, who is “old”, who requires help and who does not? The government has a vested interest in expanding “victim” status to as many as possible because it expands their power and justifies their control. The “victim”, once he accepts his status, desires to use the power of government to steal as much as he can. The only real victim is the one who remains productive despite the fact that he is continually raped by the looters. Of course the final victim is the society itself which eventually collapses in ignorance and want.
If we really want to fix our country, we have to be willing to return to the “extremely” limited government of our founders. We cannot make exceptions for Social Security, education, welfare, health care or any other social program. We cannot eliminate one we do not currently take advantage of and seek to preserve that which we now use. We cannot make exceptions for our current situation at the expense of the future. Is this harsh? Shouldn’t we care about the elderly and the poor? A free society will be charitable, as we demonstrated in the early years of our history and continue to exhibit to the rest of the world. We may even go so far as to say that it is society’s “duty” to help the less fortunate. However, while it may be society’s job, it is not the government’s. What is the difference? Society encourages behavior through various community mores. Government uses force. Charity should never be forced. Competition should never be skewed through the power of government intrusion. Production should never be pillaged on behalf of another. Uncompromised liberty is the only path to a healthy, moral, long-lived nation.
Here is an unequivocal statement. Government cannot create wealth, it is impossible. The only thing government can do is create a safe and just environment in which wealth can be created. Here is another true statement. Government cannot solve social problems. Every time it tries it makes them worse. Freedom creates a moral and prosperous environment because in the long run, it is in the best interest of everyone to be fair, honest and responsible in their dealings with one another. This is because in order to provide for myself, I need to convince someone else that what I can produce through my labor or my ideas has enough value that it is worthy of being traded for my necessities. If I try to cheat or steal, it may work once or twice but eventually, no one will want to trade with me and I will starve. If I have alienated my family through base and immoral behavior, I will not have any “safety net” if I hit a rough spot or become too old to produce adequately for my own needs.
Enter government. Someone at some point decides that he will expand the role of government beyond securing safety and justice for the citizens and “help” the less fortunate. Sounds good on the surface. Government looks at some who are successful and decide they have more than they need and government could use that excess to help those who don’t have as much. Government has now changed the whole game. To meet his needs, the citizen no longer has to convince his fellow of the value of his labor or ideas, he only needs to convince government that he is worthy of the value another has produced. Government, which produces no value or wealth in itself, then pulls out the guns and takes from the productive to give it to the less or non-productive. The way to prosperity is no longer hard work, honesty or responsible behavior but doing whatever it takes to convince government of need. The individual’s primary concern is no longer his community or even his family, it becomes his relationship to government. If he is poor, he doesn’t go to friends or family for a little help, he goes to government and feels resentment toward the “rich” whose duty, he believes, is to meet his need. If he’s rich, he resents having his charity forced and feels resentment toward the poor. Voila, class warfare. Choices that once had negative consequences are subsidized. Families and communities break down, public morality vanishes and the whole process creates more “victims” who cry to the government for redress. These principles apply to businesses as well as individuals. Business pay “protection” and use the power of government to crush competition.
The longer this process goes on, the greater the number of victims and the fewer the producers from whom tribute is exacted. Eventually, the victim actually becomes one, a victim of a government that has reduced them to ignorance and serfdom. The victim has been reduced to begging and knows nothing else. What happens when everyone’s a victim? Who pays then? What happens when the amount of money looted from the productive becomes so great production is no longer worth the effort? When the government coffers are empty, to whom will the victim turn? From whom will he get his sustenance? When the mob of immoral looters are no longer being pacified by government plunder, will they not devour the remaining carcass of society in a orgy of mindless rage?
I have written this “lesson” because we are nearing that result. There is talk of a “conservative” revival. I fear that means very different things to different people. To some it means stopping out of control government spending and keeping the government from gaining even more control through any new programs. They are “conserving”, to some degree or another, the status quo. Some want to “conserve” it as it was five years ago, some want to “conserve” it as it was under President Reagan. Then there are those who want “limited” government, which also means different things to different people. Some want to eliminate things like the Department of Education and others the Great Society programs. Personally, I don’t want to “conserve” anything in government that is outside the specific parameters of basic justice and security.
The reason is this. The Bible says that a “little leaven works its way through the whole loaf.” One cannot have a “little” socialism any more than one can be a “little” pregnant. The first time the government decides to give a special favor to one at the expense of another, the first time it becomes acceptable to take the results of the production of one and give it to another, the precedent is set. Once the “victim” class is established for one, for whatever reason, there is no fundamental objection to applying that designation to anyone else. There is no objective standard to define “need” because “need” is defined by the whim of government. What is “poor”, who is “old”, who requires help and who does not? The government has a vested interest in expanding “victim” status to as many as possible because it expands their power and justifies their control. The “victim”, once he accepts his status, desires to use the power of government to steal as much as he can. The only real victim is the one who remains productive despite the fact that he is continually raped by the looters. Of course the final victim is the society itself which eventually collapses in ignorance and want.
If we really want to fix our country, we have to be willing to return to the “extremely” limited government of our founders. We cannot make exceptions for Social Security, education, welfare, health care or any other social program. We cannot eliminate one we do not currently take advantage of and seek to preserve that which we now use. We cannot make exceptions for our current situation at the expense of the future. Is this harsh? Shouldn’t we care about the elderly and the poor? A free society will be charitable, as we demonstrated in the early years of our history and continue to exhibit to the rest of the world. We may even go so far as to say that it is society’s “duty” to help the less fortunate. However, while it may be society’s job, it is not the government’s. What is the difference? Society encourages behavior through various community mores. Government uses force. Charity should never be forced. Competition should never be skewed through the power of government intrusion. Production should never be pillaged on behalf of another. Uncompromised liberty is the only path to a healthy, moral, long-lived nation.
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