Welfare State – Student Of Liberty

LETTERS TO RICHARD COBDEN

We demanded that the State directly create happiness for the citizens.

Unfortunately, the ideas of the day are being taken to a frightening extreme in the opposite direction: Introducing the State to everything.

There is only one thing the public doesn’t want to deal with, and that is public affairs.

Now, progress toward perfection always implies some degree of imperfection in the future as well as in the past.

How can individuals delegate rights that they do not possess?

The people, accustomed to calling upon the state for everything, accuse the government, not of doing too much, but of not doing enough.

Must we always start with the fatal premise that all those who govern are guardians and all the governed are wards?

In a word, an admirable institution will, from its very inception, be turned into a branch of the police force.

I have seen vineyard owners on days when it hails, days on which they are ruined. They weep but do not blame the government.

The people will be crushed by taxes, and loan upon loan will be taken out. Once the present has been exhausted, the future will be devoured.