In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge famously said that the “chief business of the American people is business.” Today, however, this could be reworded as “the business of the American people is redistribution.” And government redistribution of income and wealth—violations of personal property rights—is tearing apart the social fabric of the country.
Today more than half of Americans receive more money from government transfer* programs than they pay in federal taxes. When a majority of people benefit, on net, from government transfers and its growth, a tipping point is reached where pulling back is increasingly difficult, if not politically impossible.
In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt foreshadowed the dependency problem associated with welfare transfers: “Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Indeed, since the dot-com bust of 2001, transfer income has increased relative to market income in every quintile.
https://fee.org/articles/how-government-became-the-chief-violator-of-property-rights/
Today more than half of Americans receive more money from government transfer* programs than they pay in federal taxes. When a majority of people benefit, on net, from government transfers and its growth, a tipping point is reached where pulling back is increasingly difficult, if not politically impossible.
In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt foreshadowed the dependency problem associated with welfare transfers: “Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Indeed, since the dot-com bust of 2001, transfer income has increased relative to market income in every quintile.
https://fee.org/articles/how-government-became-the-chief-violator-of-property-rights/