Eighth Campaign Speech at Los Angeles

Eighth Campaign Speech[1]

My Fellow-Citizens:

In a variety of ways this nation has legalized plunder. Plunderbundism has become an instrument of national economic policy as we seek prosperity by the fruitless process of picking each other’s pockets.

Discussion of one of the more vicious forms of plunder—Federal “social security”—I have reserved for this final address, so that there can be no misunderstanding on election day of where I stand on this subject.

To demonstrate the meaning of Federal “social security,” as it is now conducted, is fairly simple. This is its substance:

First, government compels an extraction of money from my personal account in exchange for a pension promise. A legally prescribed sum of money is taken from my earnings, my property, regardless of my wishes.

Second, government compels a seizure of money from my employer. This levy is credited to my pension account. A legally prescribed sum of money, his property, is taken from him, regardless of his wishes.

Third, whatever sum of money is needed to balance my pension account, so that a legally prescribed number of dollars may someday be paid to me, is taken from everybody’s property, by government compulsion, regardless of whether everybody favors such a deduction or not.

Fourth, the monies thus coercively collected are spent by the Federal government on thousands of projects, from paying farmers not to grow wheat to subsidizing Federal projects in their competition with tax-paying citizens.

Fifth, an I.O.U. in the form of a government bond, a lien on my property and my earnings, is deposited in lieu of a portion of these monies which have been collected and spent.

All that can be said for this complex fiction is that the Federal government owes me a pension.

But what, actually, does this mean? It means that all-of-us owe some-of-us a pension—and with nothing, actually, saved with which to pay it. Governmental prestidigitation and political double-talk cannot change that simple fact. The whole process, as it is now practiced, means only that the Federal government owes us a pension. In order to pay, the hat must be passed again in order to collect the entire amount which is to be paid. And government force will back up the second levy as it did the first.

Some of you may expect me to promise that, if elected, I shall change the fraudulent features of “social security” and that I shall institute a more efficient administration of it.

Any such suppositions are wrong. I promise nothing except to use what influence I have to rid the national government of the whole system of compulsory security.

I do not wish to attack, on this occasion, the present administration of Federal “social security.” I wish to attack Federal “social security” itself. Good administration of a bad practice may be worse than a bad administration of it.

In principle, Federal old-age pensions and so-called unemployment insurance are quite alike. Both are compulsory. Both decree an arbitrary distribution of the fruits of one’s labors. Both invoke governmental management of the individual citizen. Both reduce security instead of increasing it. I shall, therefore, discuss the principle of “social security” rather than its details.

Of all the objectionable features to “social security,” the coercive features are given last place by most people, even by many who consider themselves liberals. Coercion is my first objection. Its unlimited application, which is unlimited power, is the most dangerous thing on this earth. No man has ever lived who has been big enough or competent enough to apply it, justly and wisely, to any responsible adult person, arbitrarily. Yet, coercive influence over others is as common an ambition as financial affluence. Tyranny is only arbitrary coercion carried to its logical conclusion.

The American Revolution was conducted and the American government was formed to deliver Americans from arbitrary coercion and to insure us against it.

Coercion has its place. It should be carefully delegated and, then, vigilantly watched, but sanctioned only for the purpose of suppressing fraud, violence, predatory practices and monopolistic abuses. Coercion, of which government and the laws of God should have a monopoly, has its place solely as a restraining force for the protection of the individual citizen’s life, liberty and property. Use of coercion to relieve the individual of responsibility, to direct his activities, and to dispose of his property, which is the self-support of life, destroys that which makes life worth living, and even life itself.

It is one thing to limit governmental coercion, which is police force, to the suppression of evil. It is quite the opposite to extend it for the doing of good. Coercion cannot do good; it can stifle evil. Coercion stifles whatever it touches, be it good or evil.

Using governmental coercion to protect your goods from a thief is proper. Using it to protect a thief in taking your goods is improper. It makes no difference whether the thief be a thug or a legally recognized pressure group, using democratic processes.

It is no more right for all-of-us to take from you by force something which you have legitimately acquired than it is right for you to benefit yourself by forcing something from all-of-us.

Here is how I stand on “social security” coercion: I do not even favor compulsory savings. That is, I am opposed to government using the police-power to compel you to look out for yourself—let alone coercing you and others to look out for you, which is the “social security” idea.

If you join me in rejecting the use of coercion as it applies to your earnings, which is your means of self-support, there is simply nothing left to talk about on this subject. Without coercion no Federal system of pensions or unemployment insurance would exist.

Given freedom of opportunity, protection from fraud, violence and predation and a dependence for our welfare on our own initiative, we can and will look out for ourselves better than will any other person or any governmental agency.

What is it that gives so many of us the idea that government can manage us better than we can manage ourselves? If we knew the answer to this we would know the source of the “social security” fallacy. Perhaps it is an hereditary trait cropping out in us from Old World tradition. After all, most of the peoples of most of the world for the most of time have lived under authority. Perhaps we have forgotten the purpose for which we fought our Revolution—to get out from under arbitrary authority.

Why not refresh our thinking with the question, “What is government?” Is it anything else but men and women, quite ordinary folks, to whom certain authority has been delegated, or by whom authority has been seized? Is it possible that the authority thus granted or seized has enhanced their worthiness or their abilities? We ought to doubt this. Power, delegated or seized, has more tendency to corrupt morals than it has to extend virtues. Seized power, whether by individuals or groups, establishes the seizers as the enemies of freedom and the foes of liberals.

All of us have our moments of greed for power, with thoughts of what we would do were we in the driver’s seat. It seems to be a natural weakness which only cold reason can overcome. Recently a distinguished scholar, Ludwig von Mises, gave me a never-to-be-forgotten example of good, liberal thinking. He was asked, “What would you do were you dictator of these United States?” Quick as a flash came the answer, “I would abdicate.”

I wonder if your experiences in this respect do not parallel mine. With a moment’s reflection I can recall the troubles I have had in managing my own life. My working associates, for instance, respond to my requests in ways different from my intentions. My children, on whom I try both suasion and scolding, behave in a manner quite unlike the designs I have for them. On occasion even my wife acts contrary to what I consider my excellent judgment. As a result, I have conceded that I am unable to manage the lives of those intimately familiar to me. How stupid to hope for efficiency in the management of a great mass of people, the bulk of whom I shall never see, the majority of whom have ways of life, interests, conditions and situations almost wholly outside my capsule of knowledge.

These have been some of my reflections about personal power, that is, unlimited police-power over others. I don’t want it for myself and I don’t trust any living person with it.

In what manner do the heads of the collectivist regimes, or their functionaries, in America or elsewhere, differ from you and me? These people who draft rules of life for millions of others? Have you ever had occasion to see how incompetently they manage their own little lives? It just isn’t possible that they have some mystic quality, some hidden superiority, that qualifies them for tasks for which you and I, if honest, admit no abilities.

No person, no set of persons, in or out of government, is capable of decreeing how much you should spend or save, or whether you should do either one or not. These are matters as personal as your toothbrush. They are not the concern of anybody else on this earth. For anybody to assume that they are, is an effrontery to your birthright of liberty and personal responsibility.

A governmental program of social security, however, makes your saving and your spending the business of other people. Your savings are confiscated for a supposed social good. Your savings are meted out to others by a coterie of governmental functionaries, and spent, in many instances, in the most useless of ways. Savings of others, to which you have no right, may be, eventually, meted out to you. The process is plunderbundism. It is immoral. It is an adaptation of the communistic principle of “to each according to need.” It is a denial of the American principle of “to each according to merit.”

As pointed out, the political danger of this program lies in the arbitrary use of governmental coercion.

The financial danger lies in political management of such vast funds. One has only to note the wasteful projects in which politicians “invest” the earnings coerced from us.

It has another danger that is at once economic, social, political and financial. Experience and knowledge of human nature alike teach that when people undertake to reduce the hazards of life by placing the primary responsibility on government and by depending on governmental action, in the end it is insecurity and not security of the individual citizen which is increased. Reliance upon government for protection against these hazards increases insecurity for these reasons:

1) It inevitably and immediately leads to reliance upon political pressure for a constant increase in forcible distribution of the wealth of productive citizens in order to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of non-producers.

2) The demand for the mere prevention of suffering rapidly changes to a demand that everyone shall be given an arbitrarily defined “decent,” or “American,” scale of living.

3) “Social security” becomes a leading political issue as political leaders and candidates for political office encourage the attitude that the beneficiary is asserting a right and is entitled thereunder to be given a higher and higher scale of living.

4) Once a democratic government assumes this unlimited responsibility, those who conceive themselves to be the direct and indirect beneficiaries of “social security” allotments wield the balance of power in elections. Hence, they determine by their votes the size of the “benefits” they will receive.

5) The change is always toward greater and greater allotments—toward larger pensions, larger unemployment and sick benefits, and toward expansion of the numbers and the hazards to be covered.

6) Political processes simply cannot lend themselves to decreases but only to increases in plunder, in the “take” from other people’s earnings.

Thus, the burden becomes heavier and heavier until it is no longer bearable and government bankruptcy ensues. We have many examples in Europe of just that sequence of events. It was not the failure of these governments to meet “human needs” that drove them into totalitarian socialism and impotency; it was their guarantee to meet “human needs” and their inability to meet the ever-growing demands and impossible responsibilities to which they thus exposed themselves. Indeed, it is not necessary to go to Europe for proof of the danger of government embarking upon this road of guaranteeing to meet “human needs.” Several of our own states, today, are carrying old-age pension burdens so great as to threaten their solvency, and this, after only a few years since beginning with a small pension! Surely, neither national nor state bankruptcy, nor serious inflation, advances a real social security. Just the contrary is true.

Federal “social security,” I repeat, is not security. Security is something we cannot vote to ourselves. Security comes as a result of our willingness to take risks. Every wealth-producing step we have made, every measure we have taken to lower costs, has involved chances for failure as well as promises for success. Every individual who has attempted to move into that niche which he thought better suited his abilities or appeared to enhance his position in life, has faced the danger of loss as well as the hope for gain.

Slaves and prisoners have security of a sort. They are housed and fed, though only as the master prescribes. They are told what to do and how to live, even when to quit living. This is the kind of “security” toward which we move when we attempt it by the ballot.

People living under completely authoritarian governments are slaves. People living under partially authoritarian governments are partial slaves. Slavery develops in proportion as governmental direction is substituted for self-direction.

It can be fairly well demonstrated that completely authoritarian governments can provide their people with only a fraction of the level of prosperity that can be attained by people as free as Americans have been. There is a direct relationship between the liberty which people enjoy and the scale of living they can achieve. Living standards go down as authoritarianism increases and, conversely, they go up as it decreases. There is a scientific reason why this is a fact.

Federal “social security” is a piece of authoritarianism. A portion of everyone’s income is brought under governmental coercion—the police force. If you doubt this, see how far you get by demanding that your next pay check be given you without a “social security” deduction.

“Social security” ought not to be increased. It should be abolished entirely. America was founded as an opportunity for the lovers of liberty, not as a haven for slaves.

In arguing against the policy of government guaranteed livelihoods and government “insurance” against non-insurable risks, in the face of an apparent widespread, popular acceptance of these measures, I am doing so because I believe governmental attempts at social security lead to failure and disaster. I cannot accept the defeatist attitude that it is useless to oppose these measures because they are popular. I believe the American people should be told the truth, and that it is the function of anyone speaking on behalf of liberalism to encourage our people to re-institute freedom and voluntary, individual and group action[2]—the new American way which succeeded in establishing the greatest social security in the world. Let us not revert to the old, European, government-guaranteed methods which have failed and which will fail disastrously if pursued under our political system with its numerous democratic characteristics.

I shall work with liberals, whether in or out of office, to promote and improve security by promoting and stimulating the source of security—individual and family responsibility, self-discipline, private enterprise and voluntary agreement.

Does all of this mean that I am taking a stand against the destitute and those who are ill-fed, ill-housed, and ill-clad? It does not. It means I am taking a stand against policies which will in the end reduce everyone to destitution. It means I am trying to do my part to stop a trend which, if continued, will lead America back to Old World conditions and standards of living from which they, slaves to authority, cannot remove themselves.

You ask me, then, how do I propose to deal with those who are now in distress? The answer is simple. I have no proposal for dealing with them through government. Under no circumstances is it a Federal job. It cannot be properly done at that level by me or by Congress.

While I shall not concede that the relief of distress ought ever to be a governmental function, at any level, this much I insist on: If government undertakes at all to give to any citizen a portion of the wealth that it takes from all citizens, let it be at local levels. There, it is destructive. It is fatal on a Federal scale.

The real reasons for most of the present and recent distress inhere in the suppressions of liberty, in the sabotaging, wittingly or unwittingly, of the free competitive economy, which alone produces general prosperity. Re-establishing a free economy is the only road to progress, to continued increase of real social security and to new opportunities. Free enterprise can be re-established only by the repeal of those laws, rules and regulations which impede it. I stand for their destruction.

Such relatively unimportant distress as would remain, were freedom of opportunity assured, should be relieved by private charity which, in the past, has shown itself not only adequate but actually extravagant.

Federal relief, or political relief at other levels, encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character. Political relief, that is, relief supported by coerced exactions, not only prevents but stultifies charity, that friendly sentiment which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.

This brings the campaign to an end. This time you have had the issues presented. The two sides are as different as night and day. They are as far apart as the Old World and the New World. It has been for me to present the liberal point of view. This I have done as best I know how. It has been my mission to perform. Yours is the more critical mission. It is that of determining which way our ship of state will sail. The choices are as opposite as right and wrong, truth and falsehood.

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[1] Our nominee made eight campaign speeches, mostly in small towns. He dealt with the Wagner Act and Fair Labor Standards Act which he vigorously repudiated. He gave his views on internationalism and world peace, in which he contended that wars were inevitable, except among free people. In another he condemned the World Bank and the international stabilization fund set up under the Bretton Woods Agreements on the grounds that these are means of plundering on a worldwide basis. The balance of the speeches were on several aspects of free competitive enterprise. He raised a furor when he contended that free markets should extend to services as well as to commodities. Only two of his campaign speeches are printed in this booklet to demonstrate the spirit of a liberal’s approach, which is the booklet’s purpose.

[2] The American insurance industry has a far greater responsibility in preaching the philosophy of private insurance than it has assumed. Too many in this business, as in banking, have “gone along” with socialistic invasions, not because of any change in their free enterprise shibboleth but because they have thought it expedient. Many have acquired that kind of public relations-mindedness which is nothing but a disease found among businessmen where totalitarianism is on the upswing.