MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘welfare-state’

Reform Is Not Freedom

Posted by M. C. on September 27, 2023

The biggest infringements on freedom are the welfare-state and the national-security-state way of life under which we live.

But such reform efforts have never been about advancing liberty. That’s because liberty requires the removal of infringements on liberty, not the modification, improvement, or reform of infringements on liberty.

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Reform Is Not Freedom

When I discovered libertarianism more than 40 years ago, the revelation that shocked me the most was that I wasn’t living in a free society. All my life, especially since the first grade in the public schools to which my parents were forced to send me, I had been inculcated with the belief that I lived in a free country. And here I was — in my late 20s — breaking through the inches-thick indoctrination that encased my mind and realizing that it was all a lie. 

It’s got to be an exhilarating and exciting feeling when one is living in a genuinely free society. When I discovered the truth more than 40 years ago, I decided right then and there that I wanted to live a life of freedom before I passed from this life.

The biggest infringements on freedom are the welfare-state and the national-security-state way of life under which we live. In order to achieve a genuinely free society, it is necessary to dismantle these two massive governmental structures and replace them with a structure that is based on the principles of the free market, voluntary charity, and a limited-government republic. 

Unfortunately, long ago some libertarians threw in the towel and gave up on achieving freedom. They convinced themselves that the welfare-warfare state way of life was simply too big, too powerful, and too deeply engrained in the United States and, therefore, that it would be futile to try to eradicate it. 

Therefore, they resigned themselves to coming up with reforms that were designed to improve, fix, reform, or modify the welfare-warfare-state infringements on liberty under which we live. Oftentimes, such libertarians described these reform efforts as “advancing liberty.”

But such reform efforts have never been about advancing liberty. That’s because liberty requires the removal of infringements on liberty, not the modification, improvement, or reform of infringements on liberty.

Let’s imagine we are living in 1855 Alabama.

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What Happens If the Cow Moves Away?

Posted by M. C. on July 29, 2023

That’s precisely what has been happening in the state of California, one of the biggest welfare-state havens in the United States. After several decades of plundering and looting the producing sector to fund its welfare-state way of life, the producers have been moving out of the state to protect themselves from the parasites. 

What Happens If the Cow Moves Away?

by Jacob G. Hornberger

In a welfare state, there are two sectors: the parasitic sector and the producing sector. The parasitic sector attaches onto the producing sector and begins sucking the lifeblood out of the producing sector, much like leeches that attach themselves to a cow and begin sucking blood out of the cow.

The leeches have to be careful, however. Their survival and well-being depend on the cow remaining alive. If the leeches get too greedy and too voracious, they will suck so much blood out of the cow that the cow ends up dying, which is not a good thing for the leeches. 

Thus, the leeches must work out a balance in which they suck just enough blood out of the cow to keep the leeches happy and prosperous but not so much blood that the cow dies.

That’s what statist politicians and bureaucrats do with the welfare state. They aim to suck just enough money out of the producing sector through taxation to keep them well and prosperous, but they take great care to not take so much booty that they end up killing the productive sector.

Licensed under Creative Commons.

But what happens when the cow decides to just move away? What do the parasites do then?

That’s precisely what has been happening in the state of California, one of the biggest welfare-state havens in the United States. After several decades of plundering and looting the producing sector to fund its welfare-state way of life, the producers have been moving out of the state to protect themselves from the parasites. 

According to an article at Los Angeles’s KTLA, 

For the third straight year, the state of California has experienced a decline in population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, and many of those packing up and heading east are some of the state’s wealthiest.

A study of IRS Migration Data by an online real estate portal found that no state experienced a larger loss of tax income from migration than California.

The study, conducted by MyElisting.com, found that California lost more than $340 million in 2021 IRS tax revenue due to residents moving.

The states to which these wealthy people are moving include Florida and Texas, which, not coincidentally, do not have a state income tax.

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No Compassion on U.S. Aid to Ukraine

Posted by M. C. on May 5, 2023

A genuinely free society is one in which people are free to keep everything they earn and decide for themselves what to do with it. In that type of society, if people choose to donate to some worthy cause, it could be said that they are doing so out of a sense of care and compassion. That’s because they are donating their own money voluntarily.

If we lived in that type of society, the Ukrainian regime and the Ukrainian people would be entitled to ask Americans to send them donations.

No Compassion on U.S. Aid to Ukraine

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Last week I wrote an article entitled “How Can Force Entail Compassion?” which focused on America’s welfare-state programs. I pointed out that, contrary to popular opinion, such programs do not reflect any goodness within the American people. That’s because they are founded on the force of taxation, which is enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, one of the most tyrannical agencies in U.S. history. Force and compassion are opposites. Genuine compassion, I pointed out, comes from the willing hearts of individuals, not from the threat of an IRS audit or criminal prosecution.

The same principle holds true for U.S. aid to foreign regimes, including Ukraine. The fact that the U.S. government has sent some $75 billion to the Ukrainian regime to assist it in its war with Russia says nothing about the goodness of the American people. That’s because the money that is being sent has been collected by force from American taxpayers. As with welfare-state programs, force and compassion are opposites. 

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Federal Regulatory Corruption

Posted by M. C. on October 17, 2022

By Jacob G. Hornberger

The Future of Freedom Foundation

And now, thanks to an article that just appeared in the Wall Street Journal, we learn that large numbers of federal bureaucrats are adding to their income by investing in companies that their agencies regulate. How’s that for a very severe case of federal corruption? Why do the name Martha Stewart and the term “hypocrisy” come to mind? 

The free market system — that is, a system free of government control and regulation — was considered to be too dangerous for American child-adults. Federal regulators would keep them safe and secure. 

Federal Regulatory Corruption

When America’s free-market system got converted to a welfare-state, regulated-economy system, the idea was that the federal government would operate as a parent taking care of his adult-children. The free market system — that is, a system free of government control and regulation — was considered to be too dangerous for American child-adults. Federal regulators would keep them safe and secure. 

Needless to say, these federal regulators aren’t willing to work for free. They demand and receive very generous salaries, all of which are paid out of income taxes that are forcibly collected from the American people by the IRS, one of the most feared and powerful agencies in U.S. history. 

And now, thanks to an article that just appeared in the Wall Street Journal, we learn that large numbers of federal bureaucrats are adding to their income by investing in companies that their agencies regulate. How’s that for a very severe case of federal corruption? Why do the name Martha Stewart and the term “hypocrisy” come to mind? 

According to the Journal’s article, which is entitled “Federal Officials Trade Stock in Companies Their Agencies Oversee,” “Hidden records show thousands of senior executive branch employees owned shares of companies whose fates were directly affected by their employers’ actions, a Wall Street Journal investigation found.” The article states:

More than 2,600 officials at agencies from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, disclosed stock investments in companies while those same companies were lobbying their agencies for favorable policies. That amounts to more than one in five senior federal employees across 50 federal agencies reviewed by the Journal.

So, not only are these regulatory bureaucrats eating out our substance with their tens of thousands of rules and regulations and taxation, they are also financially profiting from their regulatory corruption. 

According to the Journal, 

A top official at the Environmental Protection Agency reported purchases of oil and gas stocks. The Food and Drug Administration improperly let an official own dozens of food and drug stocks on its no-buy list. A Defense Department official bought stock in a defense company five times before it won new business from the Pentagon.

Our American ancestors would never have put up with this type of thing, which is precisely why they didn’t permit income taxation or a regulated economy for more than 100 years. 

Why do Americans today put up with it? At the very least, today’s child-adults, who are characterized by passivity, submissiveness, deferential mindsets, and welfare-dole dependency, should file a complaint with Child Services for child-adult abuse at the hands of their federal daddy.

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