If the economy privately does not demand enough interest or rally enough resource for a given project or program, then why should government then act contrary to such lack of demand and/or investment?

 

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."

Claude-Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
The Law (La Loi, 1850)

Among the many concepts and thoughts regarding free trade, free market, free economy, this (quote) perhaps the most difficult to understand, else the most difficult to embrace. For most if not nearly all have their sacred cows, that is, their pet projects or programs they deem absolutely necessary for government involvement, regulation, taxation, management, even for government total control (monopoly) thereof.

Whether it is healthcare, welfare, Social Security, education, transportation, water projects, libraries, and more, enough of the population will cry "Foul!" if to counter and suggest privatization, adding that the matter in question will be done poorly, or left undone, if not for government.

I would recommend asking oneself the following. If the economy privately does not demand enough interest or rally enough resource for a given project or program, then why should government then act contrary to such lack of demand and/or investment? If the economy privately cannot afford a given project or program, then what enables government to afford since revenue (taxation) comes first from the people, and second, from printing fiat that imposes inflation later upon the people?

Per such considerations, perhaps the project or program should not be done at all, in the same way a company will cease to offer a product or service that the consumers no longer demand. And would it be not be immoral if the same company hired gunmen to force consumers to buy the unwanted product or service? So it is with government.

To note, I highly recommend reading the book mentioned above per quote by the early 19th century French economist Claude-Frédéric Bastiat. The link below is a free online copy, thus the opening paragraph...

"The law perverted! The law — and, in its wake, all the collective forces of the nation — the law, I say, not only diverted from its proper direction, but made to pursue one entirely contrary! The law become the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of being its check! The law guilty of that very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! Truly, this is a serious fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to call the attention of my fellow citizens."

Free online copy provided by Mises Institute...
https://mises.org/online-book/law/law-stirling-translation-1874

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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Is 1:18 / Mt 5:9 / 2 Tm 2:15 / Cl 3:23

f you put a ten dollar bill under the rug instead of spending it, that is capital formation... Garet Garrett (1878-1954)

 

If you put a ten dollar bill under the rug instead of spending it, that is capital formation. It represents ten dollars' worth of something that might have been immediately consumed, but wasn't.

Garet Garrett (1878-1954)
The People's Pottage (1953)

Yet, government covets to tax (confiscate, rob) partially the ten dollars, even seize (confiscate, rob) entirely the ten dollars on behalf of equally covetous voters and supporters so to corruptively, collaboratively, collusively, conspiratorially redistribute the stolen ten dollars in forms of governmental programs, projects, services, subsidies, loans, contracts, wars, and more. Yet, it is the laborer, earner, thus saver of the ten dollars, who was then and still is now condemned and slandered as greedy or worse.

It was certainly so in 1953 and long prior, exponentially so in 2026 and long (or not so long) thereafter until economic ruination and monetary devastation.

Furthermore, do not speak to me about charity before addressing the aforementioned. For charity quite impossible, regardless the heart's oft misguided intent, without first economy, that is to say, where anyone and everyone free to labor, earn, and save according to his/her knowledge, skill, resource, necessity, motivation, preference, cognition (reasoning) while fully bearing their responsibility and risk.

Lastly, how can one charitably give without first laboriously earning then prudently saving, so another may graciously receive? Are we to abandon all natural laws hence causalities well subset'ed within God's Common Grace, so to conjure and pursue covetously presumptuous fantasies? Apparently the Communistic Socialist, Fascistic Socialist, and Cronyistic Socialist (i.e. Americans) think we should.

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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Is 1:18 / Mt 5:9 / 2 Tm 2:15 / Cl 3:23

When not fully bearing one’s own responsibility and risk, soon to set in the disruptions of reality then distortions of liability and degenerations of morality...

When not fully bearing one’s own responsibility and risk, soon to set in the disruptions of reality then distortions of liability and degenerations of morality, by becoming first distant from the burden, second dull to the burden, third dumb of the burden, rendering impossible or nearly so any chance to wisely, efficiently, sustainably hence morally judge. To alternatively state, the skills to wisely, efficiently, sustainably hence morally judge do not come solely by example, education, experience but of absolute necessity coupled too with the total burden or full bearing of one’s own responsibility and risk thus benefiting else suffering per one’s own consequences positive else negative. The aforesaid proposition rests squarely, heavily, immovably upon the singular human ethic or right to consent or dissent on literally all matters.

To note, the above and attached quote taken from my forthcoming 14th book entitled Neglected Matters as Studied, Pondered, Labored o’er Whiskey, Tobacco, Chess thus Gambit & Game (sometime 2027). The emphasis "to fully bear one's responsibility and risk" is a reoccurring theme in the book per the obvious weight of the matter ergo the inescapable prerequisite to properly reason towards one's own productivity, sustainability, practicality, efficiency, intellectuality, civility, morality, even piety.

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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Is 1:18 / Mt 5:9 / 2 Tm 2:15 / Cl 3:23

"A theologian who undervalues Logic... simply disarms himself".... theologian Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)

 

The peculiar human ability to reason enables the specie, upon all things discoverable per the five senses, to observe then to name, to name then to define, to define then to categorize, to categorize then to analyze/compare, to analyze/compare then to test/experiment, to test/experiment then to eliminate/exonerate, to eliminate/exonerate then to theorize, to theorize then to deduce, to deduce then to induce, to induce then to propose, to propose then to conclude so to determine, to evaluate, to economize, to prioritize, to proceed (to act), and more, thereupon to repeat ceaselessly.

To emphasize, if to cease and desist the aforesaid behavior, then to cease and desist the one human distinction among all other nonhuman species.

Furthermore, the mere presence of the peculiar human ability to reason as described is not only the inherent thus unavoidable condition for each and every individual, but also the divine invitation, admonition, proclamation even obligation to study, ponder, labor over all matters including theology, till last breath. As we do, we express by thought, speech, and action not only our uniqueness as members of humanity, not only our peculiarity among all other otherwise instinctive species as so Edenically breathed into Adam's entire body, mind, and soul, but we express too by thought, speech, and action our gratitude for the Creator as well our worship of the Creator.

"It is, indeed, a patent fact, that in every science man is the thinking agent, and if he shall undertake intellectual pursuits in an accurate and prepared way, and in the full consciousness of self, the knowledge and practice of the faculty of thought are indispensable to him. A theologian who undervalues Logic, as being little necessary to him, simply disarms himself. This was by no means the practice of our older theologians. They always emphasized most strongly the study of formal logic, together with its related arts."

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)
Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology (1894)

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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Is 1:18 / Mt 5:9 / 2 Tm 2:15 / Cl 3:23

Yet, regardless the political persuasions, preferences, particulars, partisanships, all sorts of imaginations foment and fester within the common mind often beyond awareness and perception... Quotes by Mises and Jevons

"The cognizance of reality is a sad experience. It teaches the limits on the satisfaction of one’s wishes. Only reluctantly does man resign himself to the insight that there are things, viz., the whole complex of all causal relations between events, which wishful thinking cannot alter... We must see conditions as they really are, not as we want them to be."

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)
Human Action (1949), Omnipotent Government (1944)

Yet, regardless the political persuasions, preferences, particulars, partisanships, all sorts of imaginations foment and fester within the common mind often beyond awareness and perception. Insomuch distortion, delusion, perversion, psychosis quite inevitable whether to imagine then assume "what once was" as natural, orthodox, even pristine although contrary to fact's consistency, else to imagine then presume "what could be" as desirable, evolutionary, even utopian although contrary to truth's consistency. Now combine these imaginations with personal, preferential lists of rights, ethics, moralities, pieties, and unavoidable the array of inconsistencies then complexities, creatively written into various isms and ocracies that solicit sentiment, emotion, till frenzy, thereupon elicit irrationality, erraticism, till violence.

If to reassess and identify the earliest of missteps, observe the subtle departures then incremental digressions, water-shedding from the most pinnacle of fundamental understandings, hence the below quote by 19th century economist and logician W.S. Jevons...

"These laws describe the very simplest truths, in which all people must agree, and which at the same time apply to all notions which we can conceive. It is impossible to think correctly and avoid evident self-contradiction unless we observe what are called the Three Primary Laws of Thought, which may be stated as follows:

1. The Law of Identity. Whatever is, is.
2. The Law of Contradiction. Nothing can both be and not be.
3. The Law of Excluded Middle. Everything must either be or not be.

Though these laws when thus stated may seem absurdly obvious...I have found that students are seldom able to see at first their full meaning and importance."

William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882)
Elementary Lessons in Logic: Deductive and Inductive (1870)

Instead of clumsily paraphrasing what Jevons eloquently wrote, I strongly recommend rereading his quote two or three times, then focus on the last sentence regarding students while inwardly reflecting. Better still, I strongly recommend reading his book.

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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Is 1:18 / Mt 5:9 / 2 Tm 2:15 / Cl 3:23

A man with a scant vocabulary will almost certainly be a weak thinker... Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993)

Perhaps one of my favorite quotes, while Hazlitt's book compelled me to commit solely to studying Logic for 3+ years starting with Jevons, then Mill, Boole, Shannon, Wittgenstein, Thomson, de Morgan, Aristotle, Grayling, Hamilton-Bart, and others.

To note, towards the end of aforesaid study I was equally if not exceedingly compelled to commit solely to studying Theology for the last 2 to 3 years and still in progress, thus the occasional posted quotes by Kuyper, Bavinck, Vos, etc. I digress, and so the quote...

"A man with a scant vocabulary will almost certainly be a weak thinker. The richer and more copious one's vocabulary and the greater one's awareness of fine distinctions and subtle nuances of meaning, the more fertile and precise is likely to be one's thinking. Knowledge of things and knowledge of the words for them grow together. If you do not know the words, you can hardly know the thing."

Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993)
Thinking as a Science (1916)

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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Is 1:18 / Mt 5:9 / 2 Tm 2:15 / Cl 3:23

Subsidization of any form sooner or later will gravely mitigate if not disastrously negate the person's ability to reason...

 

Quote taken from my forthcoming 14th book entitled Neglected Matters as Studied, Pondered & Labored o'er Whiskey, Tobacco & Chess thus GAMBIT & GAME (sometime in 2027).

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Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.
Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.

Is 1:18 / Mt 5:9 / 2 Tm 2:15 / Cl 3:23