The Welfare Cliff

Of course people should be concerned about the world's poverty-stricken people. It is a worthwhile cause to fight for: reduce the poverty in our world, fight hunger, see that everyone has clean water, etc. Being concerned about the "welfare" of others is only natural however selfish we are. 

Some people today seem to think that the world's poverty should be dealt with by the government because it is their responsibility. 

Flickr image by Ben Phelps-Rohrs

But to say such a thing as that, is to say that it is my responsibility, my family's responsibility, and everyone else paying taxes in the United States to give to the less fortunate or the poverty-stricken. Responsibility. 

It is my belief that, being a Christian, I should help others. 

It is not the help itself that I have a problem with. It is where the help is coming from. 

My opinion is that of the French economist Fredric Bastiat, whom I will quote from his fantastic book The Law.

"You say: 'There are persons who have no money,' and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to send it in. If every person draws from the treasury the amount that he has put in it, it is true that the law plunders nobody. But this procedure does nothing for the persons who have no money. It does not promote equality of income. The law can be an instrument of equalization only if it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder. 

With this in mind, examine the protective tariffs, subsidies, guaranteed profits, guaranteed jobs, relief and welfare schemes, public education, progressive taxation, free credit, and public works. You will find that they are always based on legal plunder, organized injustice."

The Welfare State in one way or another, through taxes or borrowing, is paid for by the public. So when people think that they are getting something from the government for nothing, think again. Think about all those people, including those who receive welfare benefits (who pay for certain taxed products), who are plundered by each other. Independent (welfare-free) citizens who are paying heavy taxes to provide for the welfare of others when they could be giving so much more to society through their productiveness. At the same time, welfare recipients are being plundered by independent citizens because these poverty-stricken people could be so much better off. So it's plundering of plunderers. 

I will in my next post give my opinion on how to help the poverty-stricken, and to forewarn: it does not involve government assistance that is supposedly "owed" to its citizens.