Illegitimate Activities

 

Every dollar spent by the welfare state to “help the poor” and “stimulate the economy” is a dollar stolen from society which hurts the poor and depresses the economy. Private charity is far more effective than government charity, and private investment is far more effective than government investment. The reason the welfare state devastates impoverished people and stagnating businesses is because government is operating against its nature and purpose.

The state is coercive and destructive by its nature. It can’t actually do anything creative and positive. It can only stop bad guys and punish their bad acts. It can never function as a good guy or perform a good act.

The state was invented to uphold individual liberty and establish universal justice. That’s why it exists. In more prosaic terms, the purpose of government is to defend the rights of man. This mostly means protecting people and property from local criminals and foreign invaders.

“Helping the poor” and “stimulating the economy” are behaviors alien to the state. The government has no tools to effectuate these activities and almost every tool to harm them. Using the welfare state’s power of coercion to diminish local and collective poverty is like trying to put out a forest fire using gasoline and flame-throwers.

Robbing society – via involuntary, coercive taxation – to fund these illegitimate activities is also an act of criminality and tyranny. This is exactly what the state – morally and practically – must not do.

The best way for the government to “help the poor” and “stimulate the economy” is to do flat nothing. Get out of the way. Stop harming everything and everyone via coercive acts. Leave these problems to a flexible and dynamic society – which, owing to its nature and purpose, knows exactly what to do and how to solve them. The state also needs to stop  crippling the private sector with taxation for impossible and evil activities.