| In the first instance, the reasons for confiscation are clearly trivial, and we are in agreement that it is wrong. On the other hand, it comes nowhere near what I would understand by the term "need". In the second instance, mere redistribution is also wrong, but there is, I think, a legitimate function of government in saving people from indigence, derived from its police powers and the "insurance" aspect of the social compact. The relatively small amount of money needed to provide for the truly needy more than offsets the money that would likely be spent in criminal investigation, riot control, and other responses to social disorder were we to let the indigent starve on the street. It is not the "safety net" that is particularly expensive, but the redistributionist, middle- class transfer programs.......... |
