But who will take care of the poor [in the absence of government]?!
Such questions are often posted by those who haven’t through through a reality without a top-down, centralized bureaucracy that can only give to some what it takes from others. I don’t berate those who have such a knee-jerk reaction when they hear someone advocate for a world without institutions based on violence, after all, most people are exposed only to the religion of the State in gun-run schools and via the lamestream media. But think about it for a moment – how frugal or cost-effective would your expenditures be if you had unlimited access to everyone’s money (or could just print money out of thin air)? Not very. Or how likely would you be to learn from bad purchases? Not very.
Yesterday I joined a number of other individuals to distribute Thanksgiving meals to those less-fortunate. Rather than pander for an assistance program to receive more funding we chose to act on our own volition. After all, it’s not charity if done at the barrel of a gun (which is exactly how underlies every government anti-poverty program).
Stealing is wrong, whether done by a stranger on the street or someone who has an extension at the IRS office. Whatever is done by government employees is either immoral or done inefficiently.
Major props to Amanda Bouldin for spearheading a damn successful Basket Brigade here in the ‘shire. Be sure to listen to Amanda’s suggestions at the end of the video on how to get a Basket Brigade off the ground in your area if you’re so interested. Or, if you engage in your own civil society activities that you think others may be interested in leave them as a comment so we can achieve liberty in our lifetime!
More:
Basket Brigade of NH website
Voluntaryism
Free State Project
From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State edited by David Beito, Peter Gordon & Alexander Tabarrok
The Voluntary City by David Beito
Liberty On Tour’s First Time Here? page
Liberty On Tour’s Resources page
David Beito on the Voluntary City and Civil Rights on MotorhomeDiaries.com
Capital Access interview of Amanda Bouldin and Kate Muller about the Basket Brigade
you wish you could have a sweet comment like 5919918341 this!