“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” — Alexis de Tocqueville

“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” — Benjamin Franklin

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.” — Historian Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler

Thieves redistribute income. They take money from someone who has earned it and give it to somebody else — usually themselves. It is possible that the thief actually needs the money more than the person he stole it from; most thieves are poor for the simple reason that they’d rather steal than work for a living. But yes, the “poorer” person might truly obtain something he needs (“wants”) more than the “richer” person he robs. That’s common in human history.

But what the thief did is still wrong. Human societies, even before the Ten Commandments' “Thou shalt not steal,” knew that a person’s property was sacred and inviolable; it belongs to him, and that taking something not legally earned by hard work or inheritance is “stealing,” i.e., unlawful behavior. You don’t have a “right” to what is not yours. This is virtually universal in human history, and indeed, it is difficult to see how any civilized society could exist without strict rules in this regard.

Now, anyone with sufficient personal resources can individually and willingly distribute his goods to needy people, as his charitable, generous nature........

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