Thursday, January 21, 2010

Bears repeating

The following is a re-posting of a post I made in March 2009. Considering the continued Health Care debate and other economic issues, I feel it bears repeating.


Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person's gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again. Worse still, the rich whose gold was taken away would feel bitter and resentful; while the poor who received the gold from the hands of soldiers would feel no gratitude, because no generosity would have prompted the gift. Far from bringing moral benefit to society, it would actually do moral harm. Material justice cannot be accomplished by compulsion, a change of heart will not follow. The only way to achieve true justice is to change people's hearts first -- and then they will joyfully share their wealth. - St. John Chysostom


These words were attributed to St. John Chrysostom in the book "On Living Simply" compiled by Robert Van de Weyer. Unfortunately, Mr. Van de Weyer did not provide the citation and I have not been able to find exactly where this quote came from. Nevertheless, whether St. John Chysostom actually said these words or not, I find them to be very powerful. If I didn't know better, I would say he must have been reading today's newspapers. Wealth redistribution is the theme of the day. I think we should heed his words, "Far from bringing moral benefit, it would actually do moral harm." Stealing is stealing, no matter who does it, a person or the state.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Economic Reform for Haiti

Real Economic Reform for a Hurting Haiti

Mises Daily: Monday, January 18, 2010 by

What the people of Haiti need are the individual liberty and secure property rights in an open, free market that can draw upon the creative potentials of the people themselves. No bureaucrats or politicians in either Washington, DC, or in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince possess a fraction of the knowledge about what needs to be done — how, where or when, and for whom — that is known by the 10 million Haitian people, themselves.

Yes, they can use all the assistance that any and all men of good will may choose to provide right now, but the recovery that can begin "tomorrow" can only come about by releasing the creative energy and abilities of the Haitian people. And that means that their government and other governments need to get out of the way and not make a market-based recovery process more difficult than it has to be.



Food for thought. Freedom works everytime it is tried.