Coercive Government Fail

Chester McAteer opines:

The common view is that government is unlimited in its ability to provide for a functional society; thus, the view holds; that when a social need arises, the government is there to fill the need, provide for the gaps in every social sector possible.

Unfortunately, we have grown accustomed to that particularly well-manicured view in this country, we have lost a great deal of both the potential and the possibilities of a society with the overwhelming presence of government in our society.

While it is commonly thought that the government provides what the market cannot, the truth is that the government can never adequately substitute for the voluntary actions of the market. Now, obviously, when I use the term market I am not referring to the market that we see today, for it is far from free and far from capitalism.

The government, as we have witnessed over the last 10 decades, has attempted to be all things to all people, the social worker of the country, but the solutions provided by the government has been far from successful since it is a poor replacement for just about every possible service that the market would otherwise provide. It has basically embarked on a system of coercive redistribution of both income and wealth to provide its services. In the end, this always fails to produce the desired results and usually, as history provides the lesson, ends in failure and much more social distress than would otherwise be experienced.

The "war on poverty” is a perfect example, since the vast and expensive government programs began; poverty levels have increased proportionally in this country. So, this system, while widely promoted as beneficial, makes very little sense when looking at the facts. While the general standard of living has increased in this country, primarily because of a massive debt addiction, it is not the organic growth associated with a truly free market. Likewise, other government programs present the same lackluster results, just look at education in this country, it's an absolute mess.

The last century has seen a massive explosion in both the scope and power of the government in this country. Now, to follow common logic, it would appear that such an expansive and strong government would be able to accomplish feats unheard of in history on all social fronts however, that is not the case. The only success has been in the government itself, it has prospered, expanding its personnel departments to unprecedented levels; indeed the government has created a massive "business empire”.

In Liberty and Eternal Vigilance

Tim adds:

Government has taken the place of God in modern America Chester, and so many of the Faithful reside in the Democratic Party and in the media. They fail to understand that governnment is coercion by it's very nature and that it has no money of it's own, but must take from those who produce and redistribute it as they see fit.

That means it is grossly inefficient and causes resentment and leads to the productive spending more time trying to shelter their labor and wealth than actually produce stuff.

Big government is immoral. It steals from people by threatening ultimately to kill them if they don't fork over the wealth.

And it is unnecessary; we used to have limited government and the People themselves did what government now is doing, and did so far more efficiently. Government makes people dependent and unable to act or even think for themselves. Nobody ever, ever suggests we go back to a system where charity is run by charitable organizations, for example. In fact, most charitable organizations have largely died since government took over. The end result has been an ever-expanding government and an increased political polarization as the different recipient groups fight over control of the money taken from the citizenry by government.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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