Why I am not a progressive

 

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Monday

June 13, 2011

 

Why I am not a

Progressive

 

It comes down to my feelings about the welfare state:

 

(1) It centralizes power, and that creates a system of privilege rather than preserving the existing one based on merit.

(2) It undermines moral character as the decades and generations go by, since if the government gives the necessities of life to people just for the asking, then those recipients’ ability to be responsible for themselves will naturally atrophy.

(3) It causes an attrition of personal liberty, in that with a colossus for a government, the product of your labor will be taken from you. You are now either at the table or you’re on the menu.

(4) The welfare state is very expensive, even as it diminishes the capacity of the economic engine.

(5) I don’t like the deceptive arguments of welfare proponents. They say they are in favor of it because everyone deserves a decent living and that furthermore the welfare state will pay for itself. But it won’t pay for itself, as a matter of empirically observed fact, and might it not be the case anyway that the local level would do a much better job at charity for those truly in need than some distant government? The actual motive for welfare’s proponents is to use the present power of government so as to obtain and preserve yet more power for themselves. They irresponsibly use government as a stepping stone.

 

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