William Godwin said,Government can have only two legitimate purposes: the suppression of injustice against individuals...and the common defense against external invasion.
One justification for democracy is that it provides us with ways of aligning government policies with the citizenry’s requirements and of holding governments accountable when their decisions do not accord with the majority’s wishes. But what happens when some citizens begin viewing these mechanisms as a means for encouraging elected officials to use the state to provide them with whatever they want, such as apparently limitless economic security? And what happens when many elected officials believe it is their responsibility to provide the demanded security, or, more cynically, regard welfare programs as a useful tool to create constituencies that can be relied upon to vote for them?
Samuel Gregg on Fatal Attraction: Democracy and the Welfare State
Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
Frédéric Bastiat
Debt implies a strong statement about the future, and a high degree of reliance on forecasts. If you borrow $100 and invest in a project, you still owe $100 even if you fail in the project (but you do a lot better if you succeed). So debt is dangerous if you are overconfident about the future.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
