So-called stimulus packages—programs through which the government spends huge amounts of taxpayer money to spur the economy (e.g., the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act)—assume that the proper function of government is to spur the economy and that spending will do the trick. But in reality the government has no moral right to try to stimulate the economy by spending money, and the government’s efforts to do so actually retard the economy. Every dollar the government spends is first taken from citizens (via taxation, inflation, or borrowing), thus violating their rights. What effect does this have on the economy? Follow the money—or the lack thereof. Had the money not been taken from citizens, it would have been spent, invested, or saved by citizens. When a person spends his money—whether on a meal, an education, a car, or a vacation—it enhances his life and constitutes revenue for the businesses from which he purchases the goods or services. When a person invests his money—whether in his own business, or someone else’s, or the stock market, or the like—it has the potential to grow in value and create jobs and wealth for others as well. And when a person saves his money in a bank, he thereby makes it available for the bank to loan to others who seek to start businesses, make purchases, or invest the money in other ways. In all such cases, the individual who owns the money uses it as he sees fit and contributes to economic growth in the process. When government takes the individual’s money, however, he cannot use it for any such purposes. When government seizes a person’s money, it thereby violates his property rights, which is wholly contrary to the government’s proper purpose of protecting his rights. And when government uses that money to spur the economy, it gives the money to someone who did not earn it, doesn’t deserve it, and may waste it. This is immoral from every conceivable angle. So-called stimulus packages clearly contradict the proper purpose of government and therefore morally must be stopped. Advocates of liberty must oppose these schemes wholesale, and we must demand that politicians who want our support likewise reject them and promise never to support them again. —Craig Biddle
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 10:10:00 +0000
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