1) It’s coercive. The state can’t give you anything it didn’t first take from someone else - and always under the threat of force.
2) It distorts demand. When something is "free," people want more of it - whether they need it or not - causing overuse and a strain on limited resources.
When I was young, I bought a three-family house in a rough neighborhood. It had one boiler heating all three units. As most landlords know, when heat is included in the rent, tenants tend to use more - and the rent reflects that. After the first winter, I switched the property to separate utilities and lowered the rent. The result? Gas usage for the entire building dropped by half. I had the exact same experience with water. In single-family rentals, it's common for landlords to cover the water bill. Instead, I would write into the lease that I would forward the bills and the tenant would be responsible for it. Again, water usage dropped by about a third once they were paying for it themselves.
3) It disincentivizes work. Why work harder when the state offers benefits regardless of effort? It traps people in dependency.
4) It’s inefficient. Bureaucracies are notoriously bad at delivering services. You get DMV levels of service at hospital-level prices.
5) It becomes a political weapon, as free stuff turns into a way to buy votes. Politicians promise more handouts to stay in power.
6) It creates an entitlement mentality. Gratitude gets replaced with demands for more, as the number of "rights" keep expanding.
7) It fuels inflation and debt. Handouts must be paid for - either by borrowing, printing money, or raising taxes all of which have bad economic consequences.
8) It erodes personal responsibility. People stop planning, saving, and preparing because "the government will take care of it."
9) It misallocates resources. Politicians decide where stuff goes - not markets - so you get shortages in some places and waste in others.
10) It destroys the human spirit:
2) It distorts demand. When something is "free," people want more of it - whether they need it or not - causing overuse and a strain on limited resources.
When I was young, I bought a three-family house in a rough neighborhood. It had one boiler heating all three units. As most landlords know, when heat is included in the rent, tenants tend to use more - and the rent reflects that. After the first winter, I switched the property to separate utilities and lowered the rent. The result? Gas usage for the entire building dropped by half. I had the exact same experience with water. In single-family rentals, it's common for landlords to cover the water bill. Instead, I would write into the lease that I would forward the bills and the tenant would be responsible for it. Again, water usage dropped by about a third once they were paying for it themselves.
3) It disincentivizes work. Why work harder when the state offers benefits regardless of effort? It traps people in dependency.
4) It’s inefficient. Bureaucracies are notoriously bad at delivering services. You get DMV levels of service at hospital-level prices.
5) It becomes a political weapon, as free stuff turns into a way to buy votes. Politicians promise more handouts to stay in power.
6) It creates an entitlement mentality. Gratitude gets replaced with demands for more, as the number of "rights" keep expanding.
7) It fuels inflation and debt. Handouts must be paid for - either by borrowing, printing money, or raising taxes all of which have bad economic consequences.
8) It erodes personal responsibility. People stop planning, saving, and preparing because "the government will take care of it."
9) It misallocates resources. Politicians decide where stuff goes - not markets - so you get shortages in some places and waste in others.
10) It destroys the human spirit:
"The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt, state of the union, 1935
