Welfare Does Not Free Us

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

Among the many laughable statements in the president's inaugural address yesterday was this one:

"The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great."

Welfare programs are not commitments that we make to each other through voluntary choice. They are programs of force. Economic resources are confiscated from some by point of a gun and redistributed to others. Those who point the guns and those who receive the resources are indeed takers.

Plainly, freedom does not increase under a regime of force. In a free society, individuals voluntarily engage in mutually beneficial exchange. In a society of welfare, some are forced to work for others while others depend on the outcomes of that force.

Moreover, income that is taken at the point of the gun robs the nation of savings that forms the capital that makes us more productive over time. It is that higher productivity--more wealth available per person--that improves standard of living over time.

But when savings are taken from some and given to others, capital is consumed. Minus this capital, the 'risks that make this country great' that the president notes (i.e., entrepreneurial investment) cannot be taken.

The only people taking risks are those who believe that their risky behavior is insured by government. The risk posed by this moral hazard are ultimately borne by those whose economic resources are subject to confiscation at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, as productivity suffers, we must borrow increasingly more to pay for government programs of force. The massive cost of these programs ensures that we will borrow ever more until creditors lend no more.

Debt enslaves; it does not free.

What the president describes is a state of despotism, not of liberty. He is either an economic dunce, or he hopes you are.