The general public would be a lot better off—materially and otherwise—if government shrank and more people lived not off of the taxpayer’s dime, but off of their own efforts to create better products and services that people will actually pay for of their own free will. That’s how real economic, and human, progress is made.
— Thomas DiLorenzo, from The Problem with Socialism, kindle location 581
Wealth isn’t just there: it’s not a physical object. No one can simply divide it up at will; and above all, the total amount of wealth can grow over time. And as anyone with eyes and even a little historical knowledge knows, it has grown over time. It hasn’t stayed the same. If we want to understand wealth and poverty, we must discard the icon of a static and uncreated pie.
— Jay Wesley Richards, from Money, Greed, and God, kindle location 1423
— Alfred Marshall, quoted in Money, Greed, and God by Jay Wesley Richards, kindle location 1011
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one half the wars of the world.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
— Thomas Jefferson, quoted in The Journal, a Summit Ministries newsletter; March, 2009
