Moral Alchemy by Sheldon Richman

"The welfare state is based on “legal plunder.” Only an impossible moral alchemy could turn theft into beneficence."


Alexis de Tocqueville, in volume two of Democracy in America, wondered, “What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear.” Anticipating that democratic despotism would come from government’s smothering the people with control-laden benefits, he wrote: “Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood.”

From Short Article by Sheldon Richman - Link