The Government Fallacy

Government is the great fiction through which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.

Government has no money of its own. It can only give to some what it takes from others. It can spend only what it ultimately collects from taxpayers. Government cannot create wealth; it can only redistribute wealth.

Government cannot create demand for some goods and services without also diminishing the supply of other goods and services. Government cannot stimulate employment in some industries without also destroying jobs in other industries.

Government commissions and bureaus issue decrees and regulations that manage and direct our lives. The unelected bureaucrats who run these departments decide many important matters according to their own judgment, which is often exercises arbitrarily. Whenever a social program fails, the bureaucratic solution is always to assume more power over our economic lives and personal freedoms.

Bureaucracies are designed to be both inefficient and unaccountable. Each bureaucracy exists for the sole purpose of spending tax revenue towards the attainment of a specific social objective. Without a profit motive, there is no incentive to spend wisely.

The more government controls economic affairs, the more severely it restricts our rights and freedoms. The cover story we are told is that this is necessary for the benefit of all, that society cannot function unless each of us makes personal sacrifices for the common good.

Since government is an entity created by the people with powers granted by the people, all legitimate power comes from the people themselves. The supposition is that the people delegate the enforcement of their rights to the government. Unfortunately, government usurps more rights than it enforces.

You and I do not have the right to take a percentage of our neighbor’s income. Thus, we cannot delegate this non-right to government.

Theft is defined as an activity that involves taking a person’s property without their consent and with the intent of depriving them of it permanently. Thus, taxation is theft.

Reference: Rowland D. Exquisite Philosophy: Clarity is Wisdom. Seattle, 2024: Amazon.com Inc., pp 39-41.