Not Yours To Give

Not Yours To Give

You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. (But even the lies and half-truths can provoke some interesting thoughts.) If you want to get the whole story here, take the time to read everything – because I saved the best for last.

On February 18, 2008, I received an e-mail about taxes, which included the following excerpt:

The next time you hear a politician use the word “billion” in a casual manner, think about whether you want the “politicians” spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

• A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
• A billion minutes ago Jesus was walking the streets of Jerusalem.
• A billion days ago no-one was around.
• A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

 While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let’s take a look at New Orleans. It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division…

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?

1. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.
2. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
3. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C .. HELLO!!! … Are all your calculators broken??

Interesting statistics, right? They really help put the concept of “billion” in perspective. And wouldn’t it be nice to be a New Orleans family of four in line for more than $2 million in federal money. Except…

Senator Landrieu isn’t “presently asking Congress” for $250 billion. She asked for it in 2005, right in the midst of the all the “we’ve-got-to-do-something” hysteria about Katrina. After further review, it was fairly obvious the $250 billion figure was overkill. So while the billion info is interesting, the “outrage” is over something that didn’t happen.

However…

Skip the math. There’s another issue here. It’s the assumption that government should be involved in providing “relief” through disbursement of public funds. I know it may sound like a noble undertaking, but is there any rational economic or social justification for having FEMA or any other government disaster relief agency?

This is not meant to be cold-hearted or mean-spirited. Helping those is need is certainly one of the primary virtues of a healthy society. But strong, logical arguments can be made against using government as an instrument of social mercy. In fact, the more likely by-product of government-sponsored social relief – even in emergency and disaster situations – is greed, corruption and waste.

Almost 20 years ago, a mentor gave me a booklet entitled “Not Yours To Give” which convincingly explains why charity should not come from government coffers. The story features an incident in the life of the legendary Davy Crockett during his service as a Congressman. To read the full story – and to fully understand why government should not be in the social relief business, clink on this link “Not Yours To Give”