[TBP]

They only know how things worked where they’re from. The whole idea of markets, capitalism, and opportunity is foreign to them. The regimes back where they came from ingrained a hatred of the productive, successful people.

[John Locke]

My parents and I lived in a "third-world" country through the 1960s. We were surrounded by dirt poor Africans (and some very rich African politicians). But my father had a well-paying job, my mother had a well-paying job, and, during summer vacation from college, I had no trouble getting a well-paying job. The opportunities were there.

What had gone wrong? One big problem was tribalism. Anyone who had even a modest success was expected to hire his immediate family, his extended family, and anyone else in his tribe. With every worker surrounded by would-be parasites, the accumulation of capital was impossible. And without capital there is no investment, and no progress.

The socialist governments mentioned earlier have institutionalised exactly this system. They built welfare states, in which welfare is unconditional, index-linked to inflation, and a guaranteed right. If you think it through, across cycles of expansion and contraction, you'll see that this is a machine for diverting ever increasing amounts of money from the productive to the unproductive. And, in the process, destroying the capital needed for further progress.

And before we congratulate ourselves - in the USA, 45% of federal government spending is also on welfare, though we call it "entitlements". And these too are index-linked, unconditional, and an absolute right. We know what lies at the end of that road, and we are hurrying down it as fast as we can.