Attacking America's Welfare System
by Kimberly Johnson

In the United States many people have come to think of the federal government as an "all-purpose service state where any pains you have and any discomforts you have the government will be there to help you out." In fact, many Americans believe that to have these "pains and discomforts" taken care of by government is a "right" that should be guaranteed. On October 10, Sheldon Richman, editor of The Freeman magazine, presented a FREE Forum lecture entitled "The American Welfare System," based on his forthcoming book Tethered Citizens: Why We Must Abolish the Welfare System (published by The Future of Freedom Foundation). In his lecture, Richman focused on the issue of "welfare rights" and why such "rights" are in reality unconstitutional and undermine our "real rights."

Our only natural rights are those specifically referred to in the Declaration of Independence: the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The full exercise of another person's natural rights should require you "to do nothing affirmatively or otherwise." Richman stated that the philosophy underlying the welfare system was the belief held by some Americans that they have certain "rights" to things. These rights, in contrast to natural rights, are called welfare rights or rather "counterfeit rights," as Richman prefers to call them. His definition of a counterfeit right is "any claim expressed as a right that would actually expand the power of the state at the expense of genuine rights."

How does the welfare system measure up under the Constitution? In the 5th Amendment, we find the Takings Clause that says the government can only take property for public use if it pays just compensation to private owners. Government, in its service mode, is nothing more than what Richman calls a "transfer machine." Once income is earned, government steps in and decides that it wants a different arrangement of wealth, taking from A and giving to B. By taking private property from producers and giving to non-producers through taxation, the welfare system is violating the 5th Amendment, because the property transferred is for private, not public, use and there is no just compensation for producers.

Our welfare programs today base legitimacy on the fact that the Constitution says the purpose of the federal government is to "provide for the general welfare of the people." Richman said the phrase is being misinterpreted and was not intended by our Founders as a general grant of power. The Founders were implying very literally the general welfare. "In other words," Richman said, "it meant creating conditions that generally advance the welfare of the entire society." Supporting his view that the welfare system should be abolished, Richman declared that welfare fails on moral, philosophical, and Constitutional grounds.

In addition to being editor of the Freeman, Richman is also senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation and author of two other books, Separating School and State: How to Liberate America's Families (1994), and Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax (1999).