As president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, I spent 15 years fighting socialism. The Freedom Foundation is one of dozens of state and national think tanks that fight big government public policies. They’re met on the Left by state and national think tanks that want government-based solutions to every single problem imaginable.
Throughout my tenure at IFF, the Right argued the case for less government as one in which more money was left in the hands of the people paying the taxes for the programs. The Left argued that people earning money should be responsible for the care of those who lack the resources to fend for themselves.
I propose another idea, one that doesn’t make its way into whitepapers and statistical analyses of the problems facing humanity: that love and compassion for our fellow humans should figure into the equation when debating policy.
Let’s imagine for a moment a scenario in which the Big Government types are correct, that socialism does work, and that programs 100% and in every way meets the needs of the people. Let’s also imagine that the cost of such programs is miniscule relative to the earnings of the people paying the bills. Let’s finally imagine that the cost of such program administration is also negligible and perfectly efficient such that there is no waste of a single dollar.
I don’t find that this is even close to the case anywhere in the world, now or in the past; quite the opposite, really, based on decades of observation of local, state, and federal governments the world over. But let’s just pretend the conditions I’ve described were able to exist.
The problem remains that government programs still disconnect people, one from another. Government solutions ignore the need — baked into the very fiber of our beings — for human compassion, concern, and love for our family, friends, neighbors, and the individual people in our communities. In a sense, it takes away a part of what makes us human.
Consider the homeless person you see on the street. Let’s say that a government program recognizes his lack of housing, lack of clothing, lack of the necessary education so that he can work, and provides resources to fix all of these things. How much is his heart warmed by the compassion shown him by his fellow man? How much have the individuals in the community needed to show their love and compassion for the downtrodden? How much have they benefited by knowing the names of the people in trouble and being able to look into their eyes and see the qualities that their parents, friends, and neighbors saw in them before they landed on the streets?
Now imagine the same homeless person, who is encountered by a Good Samaritan on the street, who provides to him money and a meal. He takes him in, provides him food, shelter, clothing, and connects him to other individuals who are able to, of their own free will and good hearts, provide to him the things he needs to lift himself out of poverty? What does such kindness and compassion do to his soul? How does it make the people providing the help feel?
There is a vast difference in approaches. Consider it in yourself right now. You pay taxes. Your taxes go toward some program, some of which makes its way to people in need. Do you know what your money is doing? Where it is going? If it is enough? If the program you’re paying for is making a difference or falling short in some way? Did it elevate the person to whom the money was targeted?
Now imagine that same money is in your hand. You spot a person in need on the street and YOU are able to decide if and how to help. And today you’ve chosen to help, to supply money or food or clothing to meet that person’s needs. What’s the difference in the feeling? One strikes at the core of a person’s humanity. You feel something, a warmth rising from your heart center. Whereas, under the forcible removal of money from your wallet via taxes, you feel nothing at all.
This is the difference. Even under the best plausible socialist programming, there is no love, no compassion, no caring, investment in a person’s long term outcome.
It’s not just about the theft of our money in socialism that is so concerning. It’s the theft of our humanity. It’s the real reason socialism can never work.