People are outraged that the federal “stimulus” bill transferred millions of tax dollars to prisoners and dead people.
But why aren’t they outraged that government is transferring money at all? Government seizure of income from people who earn it, income subsequently transferred to those who did not earn it, is nothing more than legalized theft. It’s legalized plunder. Once government is given moral permission to take billions from the private, productive economy and transfer it to whomever politicians deem worthy, of course there will be corruption. Corruption exists in the very act of wealth transfer itself. Expressing outrage over the kind of transfer without condemning the very nature of transfer gives politicians implicit permission to continue. And continue they do.
When will people get this? When there’s no private economy left because politicians have squandered the whole thing? That time is rapidly approaching. Republicans and Tea Party advocates may take over Congress in 2010, and even the White House in 2012. Will any of this change? Not unless, or until, the majority of American people stop them.