The left markets wealth redistribution as “compassion” when it is simply the state’s exercise of arbitrary power.

As citizens, we are expected to buy into this, and to outsource our moral decision-making to the state; so that we can be manipulated into feeling we are doing “good deeds” by giving the state more power.

To truly practice compassion and altruism, you need to have local knowledge, accountability, and trust. Local knowledge of the other person’s specific, unique needs (which includes the need for autonomy and independence, because humans are complicated); accountability, because there needs to be a price paid for being wrong; and trust, because trustworthy help is more valuable than fickle help, and trust facilitates planning for the future.

When people are close to one another (within a community or a family), there is a feedback loop that allows meaningful help to be given and exchanged. When you outsource the practice of kindness to the government, there is no local knowledge, no accountability, and no trust – as we have seen in the Federal Government’s response to the hurricanes. Neighbors helping neighbors did what government could not or would not do.

Charitable organizations are accountable in a way that the Government is not, because charity, like commerce, is a competitive market. If I learn that my donations to ABC Foundation are being misused, I have the choice to give to XYZ Foundation instead, or to simply save my money. The Government, by contrast, holds a forcible monopoly on its “charitable” projects. [251]

As a younger adult I did a lot of volunteer work in gay rights organizations. As a kid I’d gotten picked on a lot for being a “faggot” even though I wasn’t gay, so I had a lot of empathy. I’m proud of the time I put in for Basic Rights Oregon and other gay organizations. But I supported the LGBT movement to fight against the bullies – not to become one of the bullies. When we get to the point that a couple in Oregon is ordered by the court to bake a gay wedding cake, that’s where I gotta get off.

When you see injustice against a group of people, you organize to fight that injustice, and that’s a good thing. But once you start that process, certain other things are going to happen, whether you want them to or not:

(1) People will get so caught up in the excitement of “fighting for the cause” that they won’t want to quit. If you ever actually achieve your goals, they’ll be disappointed because they’ll miss going to the rallies. And there are professional organizers and activists who depend on “fighting injustice” for a paycheck. So there’s a danger that you could end up creating the problem just so you can keep fighting it.

(2) Equality means equal rights, but it also means equal responsibilities – and nobody wants to hear about that part. If you keep telling people about all the stuff they’re entitled to because they’ve had it so hard, they’ll never stop listening to you. But real equality and real justice means no discrimination and no favoritism either. You have the right to be treated fairly and judged fairly, but you still have to earn your own way.

(3) And then with any kind of social reform movement, where you’ve got people who sincerely want to build a better society, there’s another element that creeps in unnoticed. Those are the people who don’t care anything about the cause, they don’t care anything about justice, they don’t care anything about building a better world. They’ve got their own program and they are in it for power. They don’t want to build up, they want to tear everything down and burn everything down. And then they want to build their own tower on the rubble, with them at the top.

Those are some of the reasons why social reform movements that start off with the best intentions can go off the path; #3 is especially dangerous. And there are many more, because it’s a lot easier to get things wrong than to get them right.

People sometimes ask “What causes poverty?” or “What causes failure?” But those are the wrong questions. Poverty and failure are easy to explain. Poverty is the default state of mankind, and it’s always easier to fail than to succeed. Any economist will tell you that the important question is “What causes prosperity?” Any psychologist will tell you what matters is “What causes success?” Moving up requires strength, will, and wisdom.