In a recent in-depth and wide-ranging interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, President Obama made a statement that is catching flak from America’s European allies:
Mr Obama also made clear that he forced Mr Cameron to sign up to Nato’s benchmark of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence. “Free riders aggravate me,” he told The Atlantic magazine, which reported that he instructed Mr Cameron “to pay your fair share” during a G7 summit last year.
I’ve long believed and argued that American taxpayers have been underwriting European welfare states by funding the Pax Americana that has been a cornerstone of the nation’s foreign policy for decades, so I agree with the president on this matter. America neither should nor can afford to continue to spend taxpayer dollars on a military that makes up for the inadequate militaries of her NATO allies and friendly nations.
But, when I read that quote, my reaction was “wait, WHAT!?” I find it stunning that he could voice the words “free riders aggravate me” with a straight face. After all, isn’t the whole point of progressive taxation and redistribution of wealth to provide benefit to some by taking from others?
Isn’t “free riding” exactly what big-government politics enables? Didn’t he say “We need a tax code where everybody pays their fair share,” while advancing tax increases on the wealthiest who already pay more, in dollars, as a percentage of total income, and as a percentage of total tax revenue, than any other group while chasing tax cuts for the lowest earners? Hasn’t he pushed hard for expansion of all sorts of welfare programs, including food stamp, unemployment benefits and Medicaid expansion? Hasn’t Obama overseen a massive growth in welfare spending, to a figure in excess of a trillion (!) dollars, and “giving” to an ever greater number of people?
Free-riding is a very difficult problem in political and economic matters. Beyond the tragedy of the commons, wherein property with shared ownership encourages maximum individual utilization and minimum individual contribution to upkeep, there is the assertion apocryphally attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville and Alexander Tytler:
A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
It should be the responsibility of a proper steward of the nation’s economic well-being to combat the tendency to free-ridership. In his assertion that the Europeans should start carrying more of their own freight when it comes to military spending, Obama is doing just that. It is a stunning show of lack of self-awareness, though, to utter those words when he has reigned over an epic expansion of free-ridership at home.
Loading ...
Active Comment Threads
Most Commented Posts
Universal Background Checks – A Back Door to Universal Registration
COVID Mask Follies
When Everything Is Illegal…
An Anti-Vax Inflection Point?
“Not In My Name”
The Great Social Media Crackup
War Comes Through The Overton Window
The First Rule of Italian Driving
Most Active Commenters