Here is a terrific City Journal article by German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk entitled “The Grasping Hand.” In it, he discusses the way the modern welfare state (he’s specifically writing about Europe, but his observations apply equally to the US) plunders the productive to give money to the unproductive.
There is a lot of excellent writing in the piece. “The grasping hand of government releases its takings mainly for the ostensible public interest, funding Sisyphean tasks in the name of ‘social justice.'”
Or consider this point: “[I]n a modern economy, unproductive citizens increasingly live at the expense of productive ones — though in an equivocal way, since they are told, and believe, taht they are disadvantaged and deserve still more.”
Read the whole thing. This German writer has well encapsulated the reasons for the political tumult in the US, from the Tea Party movement to libertarians to a growing number of independents. People can see that the gigantic surge of government spending and control is going to mean a much poorer future for us, our children, and future generations. For Americans who aren’t blinded by Obama Worship, that is a future they desperately want to avoid.
