The late great Walter Williams's
thoughts on property, rights and justice are ideal on post-Budget morning:
- "My definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree?…how much of what I earn belongs to you—and why?"
- "If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn."
- "Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights.
- "There is no moral argument that justifies using the coercive powers of government to force one person to bear the expense of taking care of another."
- "Government has no resources of its own…government spending is no less than the confiscation of one person’s property to give it to another to whom it does not belong."
- "We don’t have a natural right to take the property of one person to give to another; therefore, we cannot legitimately delegate such authority to government."
- "Exercise of a right by one person does not diminish those held by another."
- "No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft, and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong."
- "The better I serve my fellow man…the greater my claim on the goods my fellow man produces. That’s the morality of the market."
- "The act of reaching into one’s own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else’s pocket is despicable."
English (US) ·