EVIL CONCEALED BY MONEY
Thanks to Kurt for bringing this article to my attention!
The following article by Walter E. Williams is very thought provoking and I hope it will speak to each person’s heart.
EVIL CONCEALED BY MONEY
We’ve become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders (Liberty-Watch.com)
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 that I’m almost afraid for 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? 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 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.
Much more in the article.
It is equally evil if these same socialistic means are used to back corporate bad judgment instead of allowing natural outcomes of bad judgment to take their natural course. In that case, it not only becomes socialism, but a form of socialistic fascism or corporatism. That is what I see happening here and it worries me; not only are they trying to make us feel good about being forced to ‘do good’ at their bidding, but also to save companies that should not prosper while in the process making smaller, or at least properly and ethically managed businesses that (are apparently not too big to fail) to fail or languish instead. AND worst of all, making some Citizens feel it is somehow EVERYONE’s duty to pay to make this happen so they don’t lose what they have worked their careers to build. What a twist of fate and I truly feel for them being put in this position. But it does not make it the proper way forward. It is a way down a terrible path that even they won’t appreciate in the end…
And all this while causing the value of the dollar to fall further. NOTE: Just because the dollar is doing a little better on prospect at any given moment due to pushing these horrible ideas does not mean it will do well consistently. If anyone follows the history of the Great Depression, they will see that they had what looked to be a reprieve for awhile, it did not all fail in a day, week or even a year. It actually did better for a short while till things ultimately went terribly wrong. Check it out for yourself (PDF).
In addition, this type of thinking and behavior creates a situation where enforcement of these new dictates will make life untenable for any freedom loving people. We, as Citizens can not allow a surveillance state to take over, or allow thinking free to become a danger, like some sort of thought crime.
Charity is a personal thing, and should remain so. If you want to give to a charity, or to a family, it is something that should be done on a personal level and out of the goodness of one’s heart; otherwise it is meaningless and becomes another form of entitlement to drag down our country. It can not be forced on the people as a tax (double tax because it is borrowed money) or it is less than meaningless.
I hope our leaders will open their eyes to the truth before it’s too late … if it’s not already.
EDIT: Added Professor Walter E. Williams homepage to this posting, and a link from his website: Great Myths of the Great Depression (PDF).
