There is no way to avoid or overcome the information and incentive problems that plague all attempts to legislate ethical rules. First, government redistribution inevitably involves coercion and is fundamentally different from charity. Second, the cost and benefits that influence individual choice are subjective, so it is not possible to base public policy on ethical rules. Third, income redistribution reduces wealth and weakens traditional communities. Private assistance may be more effective in helping the poor in the long run than the modern social welfare approach, in which compassion merely implies 'more public funding'.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anderson, T. and P.J. Hill (1980) The Birth of a Transfer Society. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press .
2.
Aranson, P.H. (1992) 'The Common Law as Central Economic Planning', Constitutional Political Economy3: 289-319.
3.
Bastiat, F. (1964) The Law. Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education.
4.
Bovard, J. (1983) 'Feeding Everybody: How Federal Food Programs Grew and Grew', Policy Review26: 42-51.
5.
Brimelow, P. and L. Spencer (1992) 'You Can't Get There from Here', Forbes (6 July): 59-64.
6.
Brimelow, P. and L. Spencer (1993) 'Food and Drugs and Policies', Forbes (22 November): 115-19.
7.
Buchanan, J.M. (1969) Cost and Choice. Chicago, IL: Markham .
8.
Buchanan, J.M. (1975) 'The Samaritan's Dilemma', in Edmund Phelps (ed.) Altruism, Morality, and Economic Theory, pp. 71-85. New York: Russell Sage.
9.
Buchanan, J.M. (1989) 'Constitutional Economics', in R.D. Tollison and V.J. Vanberg (eds) Explorations into Consitutional Economics, pp. 57-67. College Stations: Texas A&M University Press.
10.
De Jouvenal, B. (1952/1990) The Ethics of Redistribution. Indianapolis, IN : Liberty Press.
11.
Friedman, M. and R. Friedman (1989) 'The Tide in the Affairs of Men', The Freeman 39: 135-43.
12.
Hayek, F.A. (1945) 'The Use of Knowledge in Society', American Economic Review35: 519-30.
13.
Hayek, F.A. (1979) Law, Legislation, and Liberty vol. 3: The Political Order of a Free People. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
14.
Hayek, F.A. (1991) The Trend of Economic Thinking: Essays on Political Economists and Economic History vol. 2, Collected Words of F.A. Hayek (W.W. Bartley III and S. Kresge, eds). Chicago. IL: University of Chicago Press.
15.
Hazlitt, H. (1972) The Foundations of Morality. Los Angeles, CA: Nash .
16.
Hazlitt, H. (1973) The Conquest of Poverty. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.
17.
Hill, P.J. (1995) 'Reflections on Aaron Levine's Economics and Jewish Law: Halakhic Perspectives', Cultural Dynamics7(3): 371-86.
18.
Kirzner, I.M. (1985) Discovery and the Capitalist Process. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
19.
Lee, D.R. (1991) 'The Politics of Poverty and the Poverty of Politics', in J.L. Doti and D.R. Lee (eds) The Market Economy: A Reader, pp. 262-9. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury.
20.
Lee, D.R. and R.B. McKenzie (1988) 'Helping the Poor Through Governmental Poverty Programs: The Triumph of Rhetoric Over Reality', in J.D. Gwartney and R.E. Wagner (eds) Public Choice and Constitutional Economics. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
21.
Murray, C. (1984) Losing Ground. New York: Basic Books.
22.
Nisbet, R. (1993) 'Still Questing ', Intercollegiate Review29: 41-5.
23.
Olson, M. (1982) The Rise and Decline of Nations. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
24.
Pasour, E.C., Jr (1990) Agriculture and the State: Market Processes and Bureaucracy. New York : Holmes and Meier.
25.
Pasour, E.C., Jr (1994) 'Redistribution and Constitutional Political Economy', Constitutional Political Economy5: 81-98.
26.
Rector, R. (1992) 'Requiem for the War on Poverty: Rethinking Welfare After the L.A. Riots', Policy Review61: 40-46.
27.
Schansberg, D.E. (1993) 'Review of The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky', Public Choice77: 684-6.
28.
Von Mises, L. (1951) Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. London: Jonathan Cape.
29.
Wagner, R.E. (1989) To Promote the General Welfare: Market Processes vs Political Transfers. San Francisco, CA: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy.
