Why Government Social Reform Programs Don't Work

In my mind the 6 Most Dangerous Words In The English Language are "There Ought To Be A Law!"

What this amounts to is the simple fact that no law or government program passed to date has solved the problem it was created to solve. Yet, people keep going to the government to correct some perceived "wrong." The reason why is because what separates government from the rest of society isn't its size, its disregard for profit, its foresight (it has none) or its scope.

What makes government unique is one feature, coercion?the use of force and the threat of force to make people comply with its dictates. This is how government differs from every other aspect of society. Others persuade, government compels.

When someone says "There Ought To Be A Law!" What they are really saying, with a head full of vicious intentions, is they want others to do things their way and use governmental force to compel them to do it their way.

For example:

• When someone demands that the government help hurricane victims, they are saying that they want to force other people to pay for hurricane relief. Otherwise they would be happy to have the Red Cross and other private charities handle everything.
• When someone wants government to limit the price of a product, they are asking to use governmental force to prevent people from paying more for something they want. Otherwise, they would simply urge people not to shop at shops that they feel are charging too much.
• When congress passes a bill mandating "Family Leave," it forces every employer to provide time off for family problems?even if its employees want the employer to use payroll money for some other benefit. Otherwise, employers and employees would be free to decide what works best in each situation.

Nothing involving government is voluntary?as it should be when a private company does something. One way or another, there is compulsion in every government activity:

• The government forces someone to pay for something;
• The government forces someone to do something; or
• The government forcibly prevents someone from doing something.

There is no other reason to involve the government. And by "force" I mean the real thing. The kind that hurts people. It is at work in every government program, though the programs supporters will readily admit it, that is unless you back them into a corner about it.

If sounds like a sweeping statement, you obviously haven't tried to resist a government program. If you did, you would find out in a short period of time that it was backed and enforced by a gun in the hands of a government officer.

The US Internal Revenue Service likes to say that the US tax system is based on voluntary compliance. Which is true as long as you comply, the system is voluntary. But, the second that you decide not to comply, you'll find yourself in a different system?one in which you will be forced to pay.

Getting the government to do what you want can be an attractive prospect?especially if you don't have to admit, even to yourself, how you are getting what you want.

• If you want to feed the destitute, you won't have to persuade hundreds of people to donate money. You get the government to force millions of people to contribute
• If you own a business and it is losing customers, you don't have to try and match your competitors. You can get the government to establish licensing laws or impose taxes and tariffs that gets the competition out of your hair.
• If you want to feed the destitute, you won't have to persuade hundreds of people to donate money. You get the government to force millions of people to contribute
• If you don't want people reading things you think are indecent. You can just get the government to put the smut peddlers out of business

Government, with its power to coerce, seems to be a magic wand that can make your dreams come true. It can seem able to summon up anything you want, do away with anything you don't like, and make everyone happy, especially you.

Government power and its ability to coerce, means that controlling government is the grand prize. It beckons as a shortcut to riches and the ability to impose your tastes on everyone. With government at your disposal, it appears that you can bypass the tedious process of earning a living, spreading the gospel, or persuading others that you are right. With the government at your disposal you can just pass a law.

Unfortunately, there are consequences to the use of government coercion. The dream of instant riches or social reform inevitably lead to disappointment, and more often or not nightmares.

• The people you want to help get past a difficult time will decide it's easier to continue to receiving the help than to move on.
• The people you believe need help will be joined by people who would rather receive help than give it.
• The people whose lives must be turned upside down for the program to succeed?those who must be coerced to make the program work?will do what they can to avoid complying

The biggest reason that government programs go astray is because so little forethought is given to the people who must be coerced into paying for the program. These are thinking, feeling human beings, just like you and me, and the have no more desire to have their lives turned upside down than we do.

If they must pay for a service they will seek ways to avid making full payment, thusly-creating a situation where less revenue is available for the service than expected. If they are forced to do something, they will look for every possible way to avoid doing it without getting into trouble (Anyone remember the Draft?). When people set up a program themselves, most of them act as they agree to. But when a program is based on coercion, everyone involved changes his behavior and the outcome is by far way different than the one intended.

Medicare provides a good example. Created in 1965 to make it easier for the elderly to get health care. But by reducing the patient's out-of-pocket costs, it increased the demand for doctor's and hospitals and it reduced the supply of those services by requiring doctors and other medical personnel to use their time and attention to doing paper work and complying with regulations and looking for way to circumvent these things. So the price of medical care rose sharply as the demand soared and the supply was reduced.

As a result, older Americans now pay from their own pockets over twice as much for health care (after adjusting for inflation), and much harder to get adequate medical services than they did before Medicare began. Naturally, the government points to the higher costs and shortages as proof that the older Americans would be lost without Medicare and they should throw even more tax money at it.

When Medicare was set up in 1965, the projected cost in 1990 to be $3 billion dollars ($12 million when adjusted for 1990 dollars). The actual cost in 1990 for Medicare was $98 billion, eight times as much.

The bad consequences of a government program usually don't show up immediately, and the delay is often long enough to make the connection between the program and results hard to see. Thusly the government never has to say it's sorry, never has to take responsibility for the pain and hardship it creates. It blames everything on personal greed, profit-hungry corporations, and the private sector, and the government's solution is to impose bigger programs, more regulations and higher taxes.

But then politicians see the dark side of a program at all. That is what has made government success in the coercion business. Because government lets people take from other without having to face the people being hurt. This assures that government will grow and grow and grow:

• Because the beneficiaries are never told who has been hurt and how, there is no limit to what they will ask from the government
• Because so many of those not yet benefiting from a government program are blind to the damage being done, there is no limit to the number of people who will holler to join those getting benefits
• Because politicians aren't legally liable for the human lives they wreck, there is no limit to the coercion they will vote for
• And because the people being hurt by government programs are not masochists, they will try to avoid the coercion, thusly assuring that the government will have to keep strengthening the program to make it work.

What this means is a government program will grow, regardless of the "limits." It means those being coerced participate grudgingly, thusly creating less revenue, information, and cooperation than was assumed when the program was enacted and the program doesn't work as advertised.

This applies to ALL government programs, not just health and social services. So we finally reach the point where the US is now, where the government fails utterly in its traditional functions while meddling in things once considered none of its business  such as taking over the healthcare system, policing the planet, laying down millions of rules for companies to follow, subsidizing everything from art to zoology.

In conclusion here are few things to keep in mind

• A government that tries to help those who can't help themselves will turn into a government that helps those with the most political power.
• A government we try to use as our servant will become our master.
• And a government formed to do for the people what they can't do so well for themselves will instead do to the people what they don't want done.