Moral Rot

"There will be a day when you will wish that you had done a little evil to do a greater good."
--Sybilla (Kingdom of Heaven)

Professor Williams suggests that we don't have a spending problem. Rather, government spending is symptomatic of deep moral rot.

If I decide to give part of my production to help someone else then it is called charity. If I employ a group of strong armed agents to take production from some for the benefit of others then it is theft. If I do it routinely then it is slavery.

We are succumbing to the urge to economize (which is natural) by the use of aggression (which is wrong). Although we can help others by giving of ourselves, we figure that can get much more bang for the buck by contracting with others to forcibly take from some for the benefit of others.

But by using force to leverage our good intentions, we are doing evil, not good.