Brian Phillips tackles this issue head on in his recent blog post, "Political Magic". Here's an excerpt:
...Certainly, some people suffer misfortune through no fault of their own. Such situations are tragic, and I do not mean to diminish the impact on the lives of those involved. But one person's tragedy, no matter how dire, does not provide him with a claim on the lives and property of others. One person's need does not give him a right to steal from others, and this doesn't change merely because government acts as his proxy.Unless our politicians (and more importantly, Americans) shed this type of "magical thinking" about where goods and services come from, they'll just assume they can pass laws guaranteeing them from "somewhere".
...Ms. Bennett and her ilk do not realize that they are chewing off the hand that feeds them. They don't concern themselves with tomorrow, because they count on another hand to magically appear. And unfortunately, there is an abundance of politicians who think that they are magicians.
Of course, reality will teach us a lesson. The only question is whether we'll be learning that lesson sooner or later.
(Via Gus Van Horn.)
