Fellow bloggers/reporters here at the Service Nation Summit
Posted on September 12th, 2008 by bile Tags: Case Foundation, Henry Hazlitt, John Taylor Gatto, Julia Rocchi, Linda Tannehill, Ludwig von Mises, Mary Ruwart, Morris Tannehill, Murray Rothbard, Robert Murphy, United StatesThis morning I met a few bloggers though one in particular I’ve had some more extensive discussion with was Julia Rocchi of the Case Foundation. She’s blogging at their site SocialCitizens.org/blog. I’m glad to see some of my criticisms were noted by her on the post “questioning service.”
Voluntarism can be a great thing and the inhabitants of the United States are these most generous people in the world. State involvement taints this. While the service itself is not mandatory (for the moment) the taxes used to fund these state run projects makes all tax payers participants regardless of whether or not they agree with the way it’s being spent. And given the governments track record on thriftiness we may as well hand out cash on the sidewalk. Yes, that same argument may be said about all tax money utilization. I would argue that’s one of the reasons to oppose taxation in general (and that it’s theft). Government incentivized voluntarism, isn’t. Just as welfare is not charity. The government is taking money from one individual in order to pay another to “serve.” True voluntarism is completely from oneself. It is the “altruistic” (non-tangible selfishness) spending of time, money, labor, and skill.
As I’ve mentioned so often before, there is what is seen when the government promotes these projects and that which is not seen. What does not get seen is the potential lost because of government incentivizing individuals away from their free market path. The investments which would have been made with the money which was taxed away. The capital which would have been created due to those investments in the private sectors need to serve the customers. The jobs that were never created, the businesses never started. Many may scoff at these suggestions but that’s why it’s the problem of the seen and not seen.
As government grows, and we all know it does, more and more resources will be taken from the tax payers to be thrown around by politicians at their whim until such time that we have a near complete centralized control of resources. At which point our society will crumble.
Those who advocate more government involvement in anything let alone voluntarism need to take a serious look, both practically and morally, at what they ask for. Does government interference in the market lead to lesser or greater standard of living? Does the threat of violence, which is how government functions, not negate the good they intend to perform with the money and capital obtained?
Society would not accept as a defense from a theft that he was robbing John in order to feed Paul who’s starving. Society should also not accept that defense when the government uses it.
For those interested in this topic I recommend reading:
- The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
- Healing Our World by Mary J. Ruwart <== this one in particular for liberal leaning individuals.
- The Market for Liberty by Linda and Morris Tannehill
- and other works by those at Mises.org including Murray Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, John Taylor Gatto, Robert Murphy, Henry Hazlitt, Lew Rockwell, etc.
2 Responses to “Fellow bloggers/reporters here at the Service Nation Summit”
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September 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
If and when you have time, can you expand on what this means?
September 12th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
If you finished reading Human Action you’d know :-)
All actions are selfish. In one’s interest. Altruism is generally a third party’s interpretation of an action which they themselves would likely not do. They don’t see the intangible benefit only the time/money/labor/capital lost. They are unable empathize or unwilling to deal with the facts of the matter.