Annexing El Dorado
We can't, as a people, vote ourselves rich. Individuals can use government -- government officials can use government -- to get rich off of other people. But no government policy will manufacture wealth.
As Dorothy Sayers has said (and many statesmen and economists and philosophers echo her), there are only two sources of wealth: the fruits of the earth and the labor of human beings. Government action can redistribute wealth, though the very act of redistribution is guaranteed to shrink the supply of it. The more government tries to fix things, the broker they get -- and the broker we get.
Why is this so hard to understand?
As Dorothy Sayers has said (and many statesmen and economists and philosophers echo her), there are only two sources of wealth: the fruits of the earth and the labor of human beings. Government action can redistribute wealth, though the very act of redistribution is guaranteed to shrink the supply of it. The more government tries to fix things, the broker they get -- and the broker we get.
Why is this so hard to understand?