How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit

Townhall
Walter E. Williams

The excerpts below cover the basics of the Professor’s book.

He makes it easy to understand who is doing the stealing, our own Uncle Sam.

Browning explains that certain kinds of equality have been a cherished value in America. Equality under the law and, within reason, equality of opportunity is consistent with a free society. Equality of results is an anathema to a free society and within it lie the seeds of tyranny.

Browning entertains a discussion about when inequalities are just or unjust. For example, college graduates earn income higher than high-school dropouts. Some people prefer to work many hours and earn more than others who prefer to work fewer…..Most would agree that these inequalities are just. There are other sources of inequalities that are unjust, such as: when incomes result from fraud, corruption, stealing, exploitation, oppression and the like.

Much of the justification for the welfare state is to reduce income inequality by making income transfers to the poor.

The question that naturally arises is if we’re spending enough to lift everyone out of poverty, why is there still poverty? The obvious answer is poor people are not receiving all the money being spent in their name. Non-poor people are getting the bulk of it.

So what’s Browning’s solution? First, he reminds us of the biblical admonition “Thou shalt not steal.” Government income redistribution programs produce the same result as theft. In fact, that’s what a thief does; he redistributes income. The difference between government and thievery is mostly a matter of legality.

James Madison, the father of our Constitution, said, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

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