A Nation of Thieves?

We Have Become A Nation Of Thieves

Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let's think about socialism.

Imagine there's an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here's my question to you, and I'm almost afraid of the answer:

Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady's lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment?

In Favor Of Slavery

I'm hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.

Would there be the same condemnation if instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow's lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn.

I'd say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate's mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.

Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn.

This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible, but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable such acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive.

This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one's fellow man.

Helping one's fellow man in need, by reaching into one's own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another's pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation.

Some people might contend that we are a democracy where the majority agrees to the forcible use of one person for the good of another. But does a majority consensus confer morality to an act that would otherwise be deemed immoral?

In other words, if a majority of the widow's neighbors voted to force one neighbor to mow her law, would that make it moral?

I don't believe any moral case can be made for the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another. But that conclusion is not nearly as important as the fact that so many of my fellow Americans give wide support to using people. I would like to think it is because they haven't considered that more than $2 trillion of the over $3 trillion federal budget represents Americans using one another.

Madison Rejected

Of course, they might consider it compensatory justice. For example, one American might think:

"Farmers get Congress to use me to serve the needs of some farmers. I'm going to get Congress to use someone else to serve my needs by subsidizing my child's college education."

The bottom line is that we've become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He 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."

Tragically, today's Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail.

By WALTER E. WILLIAMS
November 19, 2008

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=311982785694595

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Response by BT:

In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: 'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'

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Response by Len S.:

Good Walter Williams article on Red State Patriot. But even Williams does not go far enough. In our society now, when anyone is born, that individual immediately gains the potential right to a mortgage on your earnings and assets. Your government's elected officials arbitrarily determine the percentage of your earnings that will be confiscated for others' needs. And that instantly-created right to your earnings and assets is protected by agents of your government such as the IRS, with the power to destroy you. When an entity, which controls you completely, and determines arbitrarily how much of the product of your labor you are permitted to keep, and can destroy you at will, that condition is called slavery. Such taxation was once a rallying cry for those living here under another government's thumb. Those inhabitants of America then, who stood up to overwhelming power, are of no relation whatever to the Americans who live here today.

"Ubi Est Mea" - ( " Where's Mine? " ) ~ slogan of Americans in name only

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Response by Marty D.:

See also the archived article on this website entitled "Slavery has Not been Abolished" (March, 2008)

Posted November 24, 2008 05:46 AM
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