Context
The fundamental principle of socialism is that it is appropriate to use force to organize society, to take from some to give to others. The government does not give anybody anything. The government has nothing to give. The government is simply a mechanism which has the power to take from some to give to others. It is a way in which some people can spend other people’s money for the benefit of a third party—and not so incidentally, themselves.
Explanation
Government does not create resources; it reallocates them. Every dollar it gives began as someone’s earnings. That doesn’t mean government never has a role, but it does mean every promise has a price. When we forget this, we mistake generosity with other people’s money for costless compassion. The more we rely on political transfers, the more energy we pull from work, saving, risk-taking, and neighborly care—the engines that truly lift people out of poverty.
See government as a tool with sharp edges: sometimes necessary, always risky if overused. The closer help is to the people who give it and the people who need it, the wiser and kinder it tends to be. Keep the state in its proper lane, and let free people do what they do best: create, exchange, and care for one another.
