The War on Poverty Impoverishes the Poor
Among the worst things that has ever happened to the poor is the federal government’s war on poverty. As a socialist program, it actually impoverishes the poor rather than improving their overall economic condition. That’s because it destroys or impedes the forces that raise the standard of living of everyone in society, especially the poor.
Let’s begin with an imaginary nation, one in which people decide to repeal all taxes on income, prohibit the government from helping people, establish sound money, end all restrictions on trade, and dismantle their enormous military establishment, leaving only a small military force in existence. Everyone is now free to accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth.
Over the course of the next three decades, a tremendous amount of wealth is accumulated. But there are also enormous disparities of wealth — thousands of multimillionaires and billionaires but millions of people who have more “normal” incomes and wealth. Nonetheless, the overall standard of living is significantly higher than it was at the beginning of this process, especially for the poor.
Along come socialists and, driven by a strong sense of envy and covetousness, decide that this massive disparity of wealth is unfair. “It’s simply not right that there are some in society who have so much wealth while others have less,” they declare. “We need to wage war on poverty,” they exclaim.
How do they purport to wage their war? By using the government to take money from the rich through taxation and then give it to the poor. “The rich don’t really need so much money,” the socialists say, “and the poor need it muc
Article from LewRockwell
