Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

When liberty-people hear the word, “fairness,” they're thinking that the rules of the game must be the same for everyone, but socialists use “fairness” as a weasel-word to imply new Rights. There is no Right to a decent life: no one is owed a house, a car, or even food. In America, life is a liberty culture, and you are responsible for both the rewards & consequences of your life: fairness does not play a part in it. However, our human motivations of pity & charity prompt us to provide a societal safety net for unfortunate people, called Welfare. Unfortunately the supporting argument for providing a social safety net is undermined by those who abuse it: Welfare may be prevalent but it should not be popular.

Welfare is difficult to fit into an ideology. Socialists, of course, believe that those who have more should be forced to give to those who don't. And Conservatives, for the most part, have religious teachings advocating helping those less fortunate than themselves. Because both groups kind of agree on something, and since out-of-sight-out-of-mind is also a motivation, the implementation of our charitable inclinations can be captured & leveraged by Special Interests who exploit the largely unsupervised expenditures from the public coffers. They insist their compassion is the correct model because they know-better-n-than-you, and often personally benefit from the public's largess.

Welfare is accepted by most Americans as a short term solution to some problems, and only long term for the most egregiously incompetent, but it is our charity, not our obligation, to provide it.