The most difficult thing in regards to promoting liberty is telling people that they are going to receive less services. No senior citizen wants to roll back our socialized healthcare or take a cut in social security. These programs are of course funded by tax payers, many of which do not receive any benefits from the programs they are funding. Of course, America cannot fund all of its social welfare programs, so it takes on more debt and expands the money supply so it can pay the debtors with devalued money. See, the average person will not and cannot understand the preceding statements. Nor will they understand that every government program, funded through inflation or taxation is an assault on the liberty of the people.
I like to remind people that government is only a monopoly of force. Even Barack Obama has acknowledged this to be true. Perhaps Friederic Bastiat said it best, “Government is force. Nothing more, nothing less.” I like that quote because it is of course true and it’s blunt enough to remind people that government is not a messiah. It does not exist for any reason other than to organize and legitimize the use of force. Is force necessary and do we need governments? I believe contract enforcement is a useful function of government. Also legitimate government force to protect life and private property rights is necessary. But the leviathans that exist today in the form of nation states and empires is absurd. Why? The larger the government grows, the less freedom exists for the people.
We need to, as a people disregard the Hobbesian theory that man must surrender himself to a central authority in order to have peace. Such a notion is so patently ridiculous, it’s akin to saying “the more free someone is, the more violent they will become.” If this were true, there would be no violence in prisons or gulags. There would certainly never be any government coupes or revolutions because people have subjugated themselves to the government- there must exist a state of peace. I would posit the opposite is true. A free society is a more peaceful society because it has less government force. Stated differently, people become more violent the less liberty they have.
Governments do not exist to take care of people. They exist to provide force against one party or another. They are aggressive by their very nature. They look to expand themselves. And whomever controls the forces of government rarely decide to lessen it’s power or influence. Thus, every time you hear someone propose a new government program, increase taxation, or say “there should be a law for that”, run away. Run and hide because they are after your wallet.
Before you email me with rants that I don’t care about people, or I want the elderly to eat dog food, let me assure you that I do care a great people and the elderly should not eat dog food. Even dogs shouldn’t eat dog food. It’s loaded with cancer causing ingredients.
So how do we take care of people currently on government programs? The harsh truth is that many of these people can and must begin to take care of themselves. It’s no secret that many of the people on disability are not truly disabled. Many of the people on food stamps are not starving. Many of the people given student funding for college could actually afford to pay it themselves if tuition was not inflated through government involvement in the first place. The same goes for medicine and health care. The presence of the government in these industries has made sure that people will be forever dependent on assistance programs because of regulations laid down by the government itself. The answers are clearly spelled out for anyone who has the guts to implement them.
Now, we are down to the truly needy and disabled. How do we take care of them. Let me state clearly that if you are in need and I can help you, I owe it to you as a human to help you where I can so long as it doesn’t harm me or my family. That’s called charity or contribution and it’s a basic human need to give beyond ourselves. However, I have no right to go and take from someone else so that I can give to you. That’s called theft. But when the government does the very same thing, it’s called taxation and it is somehow patriotic to have your finances be drained by the state. There are many programs, privately funded for those truly in need. Good people give whenever they can. I would argue they would give more if they were not taxed so heavily. Instead, people assume the government will take care of those in need. So people who could and would give under freer conditions do not because the State has said it will fill the role.
What about social security? A total scam. An absolute Ponzi scheme where new taxpayers are funding those who are no longer the system. From day 1, social security has never been paid out to the recipients solely from funds (they involuntarily) contributed. Retirement is the individual’s responsibility, not government’s. But try telling that to someone who receives the program money.
Which brings us back to the fact that it’s nearly impossible to persuade the nearly 50% of the American people they need less government. Indeed, nations around the globe have done a marvelous job distracting people from the truth of what government actually is, by paying them money or subsidizing their living. But there is no free lunch. Everything must be paid for either through taxation (force) or through inflating the money supply. Who pays? We do. The businessmen and women. The employees. The home owners. In fact, everything government does is done by taking money from one group of people and giving it to another. But don’t call it theft. You’re a bad person if you do that. Call it assistance, or EBT or whatever other name it has been given. But the truth remains.
Liberty & Pain 