Relief, Or Redistribution Of Income, Voluntary Or

Mere Inflation-that Is, The Mere Issuance Of More Money, With The Consequence Of Higher Wages And Prices-may Look Like The Creation Of More Demand. But In Terms Of The Actual Production And Exchange Of Real Things It Is Not.

When Any Welfare Scheme Is Being Proposed, Its Political Sponsors Always Dwell On What A Generous And Compassionate Government Should Pay To Paul; They Neglect To Mention That This Additional Money Must Be Seized From Peter.

The Larger The Percentage Of The National Income Taken By Taxes The Greater The Deterrent To Private Production And Employment. When The Total Tax Burden Grows Beyond A Bearable Size, The Problem Of Devising Taxes That Will Not Discourage And Disrupt Production Becomes Insoluble.

We Are So Accustomed To The Miracle Of Private Enterprise That We Habitually Take It For Granted. But How Does Private Industry Solve The Incredibly Complex Problem Of Turning Out Tens Of Thousands Of Different Goods And Services In The Proportions In Which They Are Wanted By The Public? ... It Solves These Problems Through The Institutions Of Private Property, Competition, The Free Market, And The Existence Of Money - Through The Interrelations Of Supply And Demand, Costs And Prices, Profits And Losses.

The First (lesson) Which We Meet Again And Again In History, Is That Once The Dole Or Similar Relief Programs Are Introduced, They Seem Almost Inevitably - Unless Surrounded By The Most Rigid Restrictions - To Get Out Of Hand. The Second Lesson Is That Once This Happens The Poor Become More Numerous And Worse Off Than They Were Before, Not Only Because They Have Lost Self-reliance, But Because The Sources Of Wealth And Production On Which They Depend For Either Doles Or Jobs Are Diminished Or Destroyed.