Agency of Theft

There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while
The walls come tumbing down
When they do, we'll be right behind you
--Tears for Fears

What is the core competence of government? Coercion. Government either forces people to do things they don't want to do, or keeps people from doing things they do want to do.

While this might sound contrary to the notion of freedom, it is not. In a free society, some degree of coercive power in the form of government helps individuals protect their property (broadly construed to include a person's life, wherewithal to produce, and physical property) from forcible appropriation (theft) by others. Were government not around to provide coercive assistance in this regard, individuals would spend much more time protecting themselves from thieves and less time pursuing their destinies.

As such, when the coercive power of government is applied toward the protection of property rights, then people are more free.

Expanding government's power beyond this limited scope necessarily means putting government in the wealth appropriation business. Government uses its core competence of coercion to take from some and give to others. Government becomes a thief. And because it possesses virtually unmatched coercive power, government becomes an attractive thief for hire.

Those seeking to employ this agent of coercion are called special interest groups (SIGs). SIGs are interested in acquiring wealth by political rather than economic means. SIGs understand that government is the perfect thief. Not only does government possess superior coercive power, but by hiring an outside agent to do their dirty work SIGs may be able to deflect blame (and perhaps even guilt) toward another party. Indeed, SIGs might even convince others that undertaking theft in this manner is socially acceptable.

Once government gets into the wealth appropriation business, we become a society of thieves. This is our current condition. We're a nation of thieves with government as our agent for hire.

And we're much less free because of it.