Carolina QuotesWhat the welfare system and other kinds of governmental programs are doing is paying people to fail. In so far as they fail, they receive the money; in so far as they succeed, even to a moderate extent, the money is taken away.
Thomas Sowell Carolinian
Source
During a discussion in Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose" television series in 1980.
- form
- broadcast
- work
- 1980s–1990s
- year
- 1980
Cite this record
“What the welfare system and other kinds of governmental prog…” Thomas Sowell. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-0C1EA578A0. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/0c1ea578a0
More from Thomas Sowell
The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody else deserves. You can talk about 'social justice' all you want. But what death taxes boil down to is letting politicians take money from widows and orphans to pay for goodies that they will hand out to others, in order to buy votes to get re-elected. That is not social justice or any other kind of justice.
In a country with more than 300 million people, it is remarkable how obsessed the media have become with just one—Donald Trump. What is even more remarkable is that, after seven years of repeated disasters, both domestically and internationally, under a glib egomaniac in the White House, so many potential voters are turning to another glib egomaniac to be his successor.
Before the Iraq war I was quite disturbed by some of the neoconservatives, who were saying things like, "What is the point of being a superpower if you can't do such-and-such, take on these responsibilities?" The point of being a superpower is that people will leave you alone.