(this is the text of a letter I wrote in December of 1995 but never finished.)
This letter will begin the discusion of things governments should
not be involved in by covering the topic of welfare. Welfare is used
in a broad sense to include government providing money, food, shelter,
health care, or retirment programs to the citezens. There are moral
and practical asspects to this issue. I will start by explaing the moral
reasons why government should not provide welfare and then cover the practical
reasons.
Moral
Ezra Taft Benson affirms that the proper role of government excludes
socaial programs with this statment:
We have lived with a system where government provides so much
for the poor that it is easy to assume that government is the only institution
that can help these people. This is not true. Most people have
compasion for those in need, but now they think they don't need to do anything,
because the government is taking care of all the problems. We must
not lose our compasion and begin to think that only legislators and burecrats
are able to help the poor. Helping needy people should be left to
individuals and voluntary orginiations. I beleive the private sector
can and will take care of peoples needs!
David Bergland sumarized the moral argument this way: "If you
see someone you thing needs help, you have three basic options. You
can do the helping yourself; you can work to persuade others to help;
or you can force others to help. ...[T]he first two options are morally
commendable. The third is morally reprehensible." (Libertarianism
in One Lesson, p. 70.)
PRACTICAL
Government does not and cannot take care of peoples needs effectively.
When government provides the basic needs of life, many people
will choose not to work. Especially people that do not have the ability
to make significantly more than government provides. For example
an individual earning $5 per hours working 40 hours per week earns $200
dollars. Then the federal government will take $7.50 for social security
leaving $192.50. If government welfare will provide a life style
that is equivalent to $120 per week, the difference between working and
not working is only $72.50. This means the effective hourly wage
is only $1.81/hour.
Government programs are run by written rules and regulations that
leave very little room for judgment. To recive welfare requires filling
out forms. If you meet the requirments, then you become "entitled"
to receive benefits. No government employee "knows" the recipient
personaly.
The government employyes that hand out welfare are not spending
their own money, so they are not concerned with limiting the amount spent.
They may actualy want to increase the amount spent because then their jobs
become more important.
Through social security goverment has attempted to create a program
to provide for the needs of retired people. This program takes money
from current workers and gives it to current retirees. Any money
that is collected in excess of current needs is spent on other government
programs. No money is saved. This program is like a pyramid
scam, where the people that get in early benefit at the expense of those
that get in later. It its present form it cannot survive and may
leave many people unprepared for retierment.
No one has the authority to grant such power as welfare
programs, schemes for redistributing the wealth, and activities which coerce
people into acting in accordance with a prescribed code of social planning.
There is one simple test. Do I as an individual have a right to use
force upon my neighbor to accomplish this goal? If I do have such
a right, then I may delegate that power to my government to exercise on
my behalf. If I do not have that right as an individual, then I cannot
delegate it to government, and I cannot ask my government to perform the
act for me. To be sure, there are times when this principle of the
proper role of government is most annoying and inconvenient. If I
could only force the ignorant to provide for themselves, or the selfish
to be generous with their wealth! (An Enemy Hath Done This, p. 135.)
Forcing people to be charitable is not possible. When people
are forced to perform charitable acts they are not really being charitable.
