Thinking About the Welfare State
Quite a while ago somebody left a comment to one of our posts stating that taxes were a charitable contribution. I’ve heard this before, and I’ve even been told that those of us who object to this sort of arm twisting, forced charity do so because we just don’t care about the poor.

It’s easier to believe that those differ from you politically are just not as nice as you, but it’s not very accurate. Certainly no point on the political spectrum- whether left, right, green, red, and all points north, west, east, and south- is immune to this tendency to dismiss with these tidy labels and pejorative generalizations.

For my part, I think it’s important to point out that not everybody who objects to taxes believes “I’m okay, and everybody else should just sink or swim.”
Not everybody who objects to paying high taxes does so for reasons of cold self interest. Some of the most charitable, generous people I know have philosophical and moral objections to the concept of the government deciding who is worthy of charity and who isn’t and to the government choosing for you where your welfare dollars go.

They (and I) also believe that government just doesn’t do a very good job of taking care of people in ways that are effective over the long term and do not have harmful side effects worse than the problem government seeks to cure.

Brothers Judd (also here) has an interesting history of the Welfare system in the US.(link is now fixed)

And while, since it is my family’s blog, I tend to emphasize my own point of view, it’s important always keep in mind the basic truth that nice people may differ from you or me politically on questions such as the best way to care for the poor without being stupid, fascists, evil, selfish, coldhearted or utterly devoid of human compassion.