Government welfare to self-sufficiency
RECENTLY, I had a conversation with a friend who said that nowadays, corruption makes the government run. It is an unfortunate cycle that we have been stuck in for years. The easiest example of this involves private individuals, who can both be a victim and a conduit when they bribe government employees or allow themselves to be extorted. In this way, we can see that corruption in government is a two-way tango between the state and the people.
While this is a sad thought, I still believe that there are many good and honorable members of our government, as well as the private sector. However, it may be time for us to rethink the role of government and limit it. This is because when the government overextends itself beyond its logical and divine role of protecting man’s freedoms, corruption can penetrate it.
There is a burden for Christian leaders who want to transition their government from a subsidy-based welfare government into a limited peace and order dimensioned government. Philippine society is all too accustomed to patronage politics that it has raised the level of expectation for government incentives to everyday living. The sad reality is that for a politician, it is almost a requirement to have in one’s platform of government the giving away of freebies, whether it be for subsidies, medicines, food, education, housing, supplies or any other goods or services that one could get for free. The more giveaways, the better government is perceived to be doing its job. The inverse truth is that the less freebies, the less good a government is perceived to be.
This would now show that people’s idea of the role of government is that of a welfare organization that should always be ready to provide for as much of their constituents’ needs as possible.
This could never be more misplaced biblically as it is. Government is limited to its divine role of maintaining justice and order in society. The maintenance of peace and order is the most basic and fundamental role of the government, which ensures that its members can live out their lives and their calling freely and without unnecessary obstruction. It is in quelling and discouraging evil that governments promote a healthy economy and markets in society.
Fredric Bastiat, a 19th-century French economist and champion of liberty who wrote the classic book titled The Law, beautifully articulated and explained the Lockean ideas on the purpose and limitations of the law and governmental powers. He warned that men in power have the tendency to use the law to destroy individual rights and commit legal plunder. He said, “It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.”
In explaining examples of legal plunder, a translation of his book quoted him as saying, “Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus, we have infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on and so on.”
According to Bastiat, one of the main reasons and motivations for legalized plunder is the desire for “false philanthropy,” where the government seeks to give something to someone at the expense of another.
The more that government seeks to do something that we should and could be doing for ourselves and our family, an immediate trade off happens — what the government will give to one, it will first take away from another. The greater the dole-outs, freebies and social welfare activities, the higher the taxes and the fiercer the taking of properties and freedoms from others. The more that we renege from our natural duties that we should be doing for ourselves and our families, the more we will be dependent on external forces, such as welfare from the government. Redistribution of wealth is great until it is your hard-earned and honest wealth that starts to be taken unceremoniously by people in power to give to others for political gain, not to mention bureaucratic losses and losses due to kickbacks and corruption.
But how can a leader who is leading a government transition from a welfare system into a correctly limited one? It must be done within a transition plan that includes a provision for addressing the real problem of a welfare society — the lack of an empowered citizenry.
This empowerment must start with the renewing of the mind and the changing of culture by the beneficiaries. They must be helped to help themselves and to transition into becoming independent and productive members of society.
The problem of dependency is an ethical and psychological one. Each person must understand that they have the duty and ability from God to be productive and be a blessing to themselves and to the world around them. They must first come to an agreement with themselves that God has created them with abilities and talents that they can discover within them and harness for greater productivity and blessing of the world around them.
Slowly, as they transition into becoming what they should be, then, government subsidies and assistance would become less and less needed for their daily lives.
But by limiting our government, would this mean that we should not care for the poor, the needy, and the helpless? No, it does not. On the contrary, it is an unction and a call for each of us privately to care for the poor, the weak and the needy personally, and not relegate it or pass it on to some obscure agency or bureaucrat who does not know our neighbors, friends and families as intimately as we do.
A limited government means greater responsibility for everyone to look after the poor, needy and helpless, especially those who are closest to us. At the same time, charity cannot be forced on us by people in power but must be voluntarily given from the heart.
Corruption in government sometimes does not mean that those who are in power exact undue benefits through their positions, but sometimes it means that the people who empowered and created the government would tend to use it as an escape from their logical and divine responsibilities. Thus, searching for an answer against corruption would first require us to learn personal responsibility, ingenuity, productivity and sufficiency leading to lesser reliance on public welfare and subsidies.
Lawyer Jeremiah B. Belgica, REB, EnP, was the first director general of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA). He is a founder and co-managing partner at the Belgica Aranas Baldueza de la Cruz and Associates. He is also a pastor and a sought-after speaker for Christian biblical law and policy.