Newell-Fonda High School
Newell, Iowa
By Jae Eccher
12th Grade
As the American people peacefully sleep in their beds, a shadow in the night is up to no good, causing mischief and trouble to all. It sneaks around taking things from unsuspecting people. This thief doesn’t care who you are, or what you do for a living. All it wants are your belongings and valued possessions. It will take everything, down to the very last bit of livelihood that these people have strived to achieve. As sad as it may seem, this is what happens to many taxpayers in the United States. As cited in Laurence W. Reed’s “Are We Going the Way of Rome?”, Kershner’s First Law states: “When a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare.” The welfare program allows those who are poor and live in poverty to receive financial help. Although the welfare program gives the impression of a great way to give financial aid to people, it allows others to severely abuse its benefits while economically hurting taxpayers.
When the government introduced welfare into America, it was originally intended to help ease the poverty-stricken communities of financial problems. This way they would be able to rebound and hopefully, find a job that would support their individual needs and the needs of their family, if supported. As welfare materialized more into the American nation, more people were asking for the help from welfare. The amount of people using the various programs in welfare dramatically increased. It also gave way to a certain lifestyle for some people. Many manipulated the system so that they were able to receive aid from welfare without having to work for it. Many found this lifestyle to be easy because they could live off their checks and food stamps that arrived in the mail. This was because the government provided the welfare system, and therefore, it did not require much labor from those that were receiving the benefits. Gradually more and more people started taking advantage of this opportunity. They saw it as a free handout, and everyone knows that when anything is free, it is, nine times out of ten, worth taking. This greedy style of living has made its way through the government system and has affected millions.
The welfare program has indeed helped out millions of Americans in times of struggle, but it does have consequences like any other program passed by the government. As an increasing number of Americans have claimed the need for aid due to unemployment, disabilities, etc., the government has needed an alternative source of money to fund this aid to so many people. With the welfare program lending out billions of dollars to millions of people, it cuts a lot of money out of other projects that are wanted by the common good of all people. All across America there are millions of projects that are wanted by groups of people, and they expect the government to fund it all. This comes right back to the lazy lifestyle that I described earlier. It does not stop with those who claim they need financial aid; it also includes those that want things through the common good of people. With all of these projects and other requirements that are needed to keep the government running, there has to be some sort of source to fund all of this money. Unfortunately, this source of money comes from taxes put upon working citizens across the nation.
As cited in Laurence W. Reed’s “Are We Going the Way of Rome?”, Kershner’s First Law states: “When a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare.” This quote clearly states what happens when the people of a nation depend upon a government to furnish all of their wants. When those that are unemployed want things that are for the common good, whose money does it come from? It comes from the hard-working people that labor throughout the day to earn an honest day’s pay. It is not fair to the working taxpayers, because those that take advantage of the welfare system live off their earnings. It is also unfair to taxpayers who support a project that is beneficial to the common good. When the project is completed, those that take advantage of the system clearly benefit more from the project compared to the taxpayers that supported it. With all of this funding coming from the pockets of hard working citizens, there’s bound to be a break in the chain where the freeloaders outweigh the employed. Then it will come to the point where ”… the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare.”
Many freeloaders take advantage of a system that sounds like a good approach to helping those in need, yet while doing so, they take away the earnings of taxpayers. The welfare system was created to aid those that were poor, yet it created a generation where the people depend on the government to furnish their wants. This in turn created large amounts of spending by the government, which then created a new source of income. This income was found in the pockets of employed citizens, simply by setting high taxes. Taxpayers work hard for their money, yet many freeloaders manipulate government programs to benefit from their work. Just as a shadow in the night, these freeloaders are taking the very livelihood that taxpayers have worked hard to achieve.
Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading
Q1- Why does Machan use "steal" in his statement: "Private property solves this problem, but was abandoned a long time ago when taxes reached the point where we can steal our way to being provided with all sorts of things we desire, never mind thinking about paying for them or long-range budgeting."?
Basically, the government raised private property taxes so high, that it came to a point that the government was getting all of this money. The people wanted to use this money to create different projects. In other words, that increased taxes created so much money off of the private property owners that other people who wanted the projects got them without having to pay anything. That’s why it was considered stealing.
Q2- Machan said: "For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it." Give two examples of this from your personal experience.
When my whole family wants to go places, we go, but my dad ends up maintaining all the vehicles. City parks are often found littered with a lot of garbage because no one wants to take responsibility for cleaning up their own garbage.
Q3- Do you agree with Machan that "...everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill; as in families many attendants are often less useful than a few."? Give an objective example of this.
Yes, I agree because everyone wants something that is free. When my family wants something that is important to us, we all take it upon ourselves to work together to achieve it.
Q4- State Kershner's First Law. Do you agree or disagree and why?
“When a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until that last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare.” Yes, I agree because that was how Rome fell. The people depended on the government to carry out tasks without setting any guidelines for them to follow and eventually Rome’s economy came crashing down.
Q5- What industry was the first to be taken over by government in both ancient Rome and the USA?
The transportation system. They were the first to build roads and streets in cities. This helped their economies flourish with trade.
Q6- Is cheapened money the cause or the outcome of inflation? Explain.
It was the cause of inflation because no one could sell anything because the economy became poor with the cheapening of money.
Q7- How did the Edict of 301 affect Rome's economy?
It was originally intended to control prices of goods. If the standards were not met, then the penalty was death. Many people died because of this rule and the market declined to nothing because no on could get a good price for the products. After the many deaths, the law was put aside.
Q8- Lee claims that individuals could be "entirely independent of others" except for what? Explain.
Scarcity plays the role that eliminates the thought of individuals being “entirely independent of others”. This scarcity restricts the independent freedom of individuals making certain activities off limits. It also forces individuals to interact with each other and cooperate, yet cooperation also leads to competition when something that is scarce is wanted by many.
Q9- Describe the dilemma concerning rules as discussed by Lee.
Rules are needed to keep order and maintain society in a civilized manner. Otherwise society would go downhill into a survivor-of-the-fittest way, in which the weak would become enslaved by the powerful. People were afraid of social disorder so rules had to be set. Yet those rules created boundaries that limited people’s liberty.
Q10- Why is the concept of private property crucial to freedom?
Freedom allows people to be themselves and gives them something to work and live for. Private property to owners is considered their livelihood. They are responsible for their property and they have control over how to maintain it.
Q11- Argue both pro and con that in his testimony Lawrence Reed was advocating compassion and aid for the poor.
Reed advocates compassion and aid to the poor by saying the government funds their projects by creating higher taxes and using that money in ways that don’t benefit those who were taxed. Reed also didn’t advocate compassion and aid by saying economic equality was bad and that everyone needs to be different, no matter how much one exceeds another in economic stature.
Q12- "If people are free, they will not earn equal incomes; conversely, show me a people who have equal incomes and I will show you a people who are not free." Explain in your own words Mr. Reed's meaning.
When people are free, they have the freedom to choose their occupation. Obviously, not all occupations pay the same wage. Brain surgeons and janitors don’t have the same wages. They are paid different amounts depending on the difficulty of their jobs and the skill needed to complete those jobs. When paid the same wages, a janitor can easily make the same amount as surgeon does by sweeping floors while the surgeon is saving lives. This obviously shows that they do not have any freedom.