QandO

April 27, 2004

No Free lunch
Posted by McQ

The nut of the problem of liberalism in general and Kerry's program to "fund" college tuitions out of taxes is well articulated in William Dennis's statement in an article about that program:

Last week John Kerry was off on a cross-country ballot-buying trip, stopping at a number of college campuses. Vote for me, he said to students, and I will reward you with a new government program that will provide — in exchange for a period of national service — a $4,000 tuition subsidy to each program participant, to be raised through the tax system, and therefore from others' financial resources.

One of the worst aspects of any political system in which politicians essentially have unlimited access to the funds of others is this sort of blatant coercion disguised as a "benefit" for voting for the pol.

"Vote for me and I'll take funds from others and give them to you". Sure, its specifically aimed at "college" in this case, but the principle is the same.

As for "national service", Dennis again hits the nail on the head:

In a free society, "national service" is what most adults do on a daily basis. The Left would like us all to believe that government work is the only true labor for the common good, but such thought further demonstrates the poverty of the collectivist imagination.

You can't do any better for your nation than to get up every morning, go to work and contribute to the whole of the national economy. Its that productivity contributed by each worker that is responsible for the standard of living we enjoy. Not government. Not government programs. And certainly not robbing Peter to pay Paul (just to get Paul's vote).

And of course, the expected effect of this subsidy (and any subsidy program)?

Kerry fails to understand that tuition subsidies do not exist in a vacuum: As government subsidies grow, colleges seek to put the entire increase to improving their own bottom lines, leaving the student with just as much, or more, to pay.

"There is no free lunch", although for the left and the gullible, this is a lesson never learned.

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