Overview
ANSWER QUESTION 1
One of the things that people seem to accept as dogma is that government exists to help people, especially from the chaos and cruelty of free markets. Based on what you've learned so far, why can't government really "help" people who need help?
In fact, how does government "help" (handouts, subsidies, loans, etc.) actually hurt the very institutions which can help them most.
https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/markets-work-with-altruism-too/
2. RESPOND TO MELISSA
Government cannot really help people that need help, there are just too many factors involved. From watching the videos my eyes were opened to a lot. First off, there are consequences for any government help, we end up paying taxes on the government taking over. An example would be a home loan. Yes, it is great we can achieve a home loan to purchase a home, but to do so, we must pay taxes, both on the purchase, the selling of the home and yearly state tax to the government for services in our community that we provide. We rented out our first home that we had purchased back in 2006. Due the fact that the market for housing was high when it was time to expand our family and purchase a larger home, we were stuck with the other home. As we made the commitment back in 2006, we rented it out, we had to pay a fee to the city just to be able to do that. When we sold the home finally last summer, because the market was a little better and we had paid down a good portion of the home, we ended up having to pay a huge amount to the federal government. Did the government help us originally purchase the home on a loan? Sure, however it definitely came with consequences! Just being involved as a commissioner in local government, I have seen a ton of misuse of funding that was originally supposed to be there to help people, that ended up lost or spent on other line items. Therefore, I agree that being more reliant on the government, even at a local level, still presents issues. Yes, it can help, however we are paying for that help in taxes
.3.RESPOND TO JEFFREY
Although governments will, from time to time, try to help people, in a free market system they usually end up doing more harm than good. One of the reasons that governments usually fail at this is due to their manner of applying solutions. Government may use regulations or spending to help those in need, often in a ham-handed way. Consider, the example of the government regulation for minimum wage. Minimum wage laws, while enacted to help people at the bottom of the labor market, can also be viewed as a detriment to their plight. For instance, the existence of a minimum wage can potentially create a floor lower than what is needed. Workers may assume that they are taking a minimum wage job when, in fact, their work could be worth more. Or, as Walter E. Williams states in The Poor as First Victims of the Welfare State “minimum wage law effectively discriminate against the employment of low skilled workers” because it will cause the employer to not hire someone who may only be able to produce at rates below the minimum wage. Likewise, Government spending on welfare can dis-incentivize some workers to get a job at all, keeping them on welfare and unable to care for themselves and their dependents for their entire lives.
If we juxtapose the role of government to the role of free markets, we can look at the altruism of philanthropists. When we do this, we can see a stark difference in how money is diverted to the poor or destitute. An altruist can “shop around” for the charity that can help the most people, or for a charity that gives the most percentage of dollars to the needy or give to a particular cause. In opposition to the way that governments create committees and the opportunity for grifting, siphoning, or just gaming the system to keep the incentives coming.
Sources:
Freiman, Chris. (April 4th, 2017). Markets work with altruism, too. [website]. https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/markets-work-with-altruism-too/
Williams, Walter E. (2014). In T. Nash, D. Matcheck, and R. Ebeling (Eds.) When We Are Free. (pp. 150-159). Northwood University Press. (original work published in July, 1980).