Big Government Is Evil with Good Intentions

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Let’s assume politicians have good intentions. But is it a good strategy to delegate ALL our problems to the government to solve?  Do the politicians’ policy decisions achieve the intended results?  Do their results outweigh any unintended evil? Let’s evaluate the war on poverty policies.

Disparity in income

In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the war on poverty. 

“This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” (Rector, 2015)

The income gap between the bottom 20% of earners and the top 1% is greater than ever. (Inequality.org, 2020)  Between 1979 and 2020, earnings of the top 1% of earners grew 541%. In that same period, the bottom 20% grew only 32%.  One of the intended results was to close this gap. What happened? 

Since the war on poverty started, our government spent over $22 trillion taxpayer money on anti-poverty programs (in constant 2012 dollars) (Rector, 2015) Can government spending really win the war on poverty?  Did Johnson’s War on poverty achieve the intended results? Let’s see.

Growing Dependency

During this same period, America’s welfare rolls have grown. (House Budget Committee, 2023)  The percent of the population enrolled in Medicaid grew from 9.3 percent in 1975 to 24.3 percent in 2022.  Food Stamps grew from 7.9 percent in 1975 to 12.4 percent in 2022.

Government spending on transfer payments to individuals has grown significantly. (House Budget Committee, 2023) In 1945, the government spent just $15.6 billion (in 2019 inflation adjusted dollars) on individual transfer payments (only 1.5 percent of the budget and equal to 0.6 of GDP).  By 1994, transfer payments to individuals grew to 50 percent of the total budget.

Self-sufficiency was one of the intended outcomes of these programs, not government dependency. Government dependency exploded instead. Government dependency is good for the political party who hands out the benefits because it motivates their electorate to re-elect them to maintain the dependency. It’s destructive to the American people, their health, their families and the social constructs.  It’s therefore evil.

Intentions are Good, Results are Poor

We decided to assume the intentions of Johnson’s War on Poverty were good.  The data shows the results are very poor. Not only did self-sufficiency suffer, so did the stability of the family and the quality of our health.

After $22 trillion in spending, the percentage of people living in poverty is still 15%, the same as it was in1966. (Rector, 2015) Self-sufficiency (no outside help needed) was the goal. It improved for a short time and then started to slow in 1970. It then worsened in the four decades afterward. (Rector, 2015)  These policies increased dependency on government.

The number of single mothers exploded. In 1968, out of wedlock births stood at only 7%. By 2015, it was over 25%. (Livingston, 2018)

This is also true for health care (Are You Ignorant or Wise About Health Care). The federal government spent nearly $1.5 trillion of our hard eared tax dollars on health care in fiscal year 2022. (Tax Policy Center, 2024)  Health care expenditures are exploding and our health is worsening.

One in six kids today (6-19) are overweight. This is triple what it was in 1980. 45% of Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease. (Fight Chronic Disease, 2024) All-cause mortality has increased significantly. (Leake, 2022) Life expectancy has recently fallen from 79 years to 76.1 years.

What is Government’s Role

According to our Declaration of Independence, government’s main responsibility is to protect our God given rights to life, liberty (freedom), and pursuit of happiness (property).

Milton Freidman claims there are only 4 priorities for government. 1) National Defense: Protect against foreign enemies (Congress and Executive). 2) Safety: Protect citizens from other citizens who would violate their natural rights (Executive). 3) Create laws to define the rules we must operate under (Congress). 4) Legislate the conflicts that might occur because of those laws (Judiciary). (Friedman, 2024)

Our current National debt is over $35 Trillion. We have gotten to this level of debt by allowing the government to take responsibility for accepting roles not delineated in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Doing this causes us to steal wealth from our grandchildren’s future. We are spending more than we earn because our government is attempting to do more than they should. Can we agree stealing is a sin and therefore evil especially if we’re stealing from our grandchildren?

Why Is Big Government Evil?

Encouraging big government violates Catholic Social Teachings. (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

One of the seven themes of Catholic Social teaching is protection of the family (Call to Family). If you believe healthy marriages and healthy families are essential to achieve a successful society, then we must evaluate the impact of big government policies on these two social constructs.

Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” destroyed the family and marriage, especially in the black community. In 1965, 24 percent of black babies were born to single mothers. In that same year, that number was 3.1 % for white babies.  In 1990 the rates were 64% for black babies and 18% for white. Single person households tripled since 1940’s. 

Studies have shown everyone can avoid poverty by doing three things: 1) finish high school, 2) get a job, 3) wait to have children until married (avoid out of wedlock births). (Sawhill, 2003) Many government polices (Great Society) reward out of wedlock births. For example, payments to single mothers increase for each new birth. These policies then remove those payments if the father returns to support the family. The destruction of the family is the result.

A second theme of Catholic Social Teachings is The Dignity of Work.  God wants us to work and to be productive.  He wants us to contribute to society. He doesn’t want us to be idle because of government dependency.

When the government increases individual payments to the point where people don’t need to work, they lose motivation. This is evil.

“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.” Proverbs 12:24

Another theme in Catholic Social Teaching is to help the poor and vulnerable. This is an individual’s responsibility. It’s not a government responsibility. I am quite confident that God will not give me (or anyone else) credit for helping others by delegating this responsibility to the government.  Furthermore, the government is stealing resources from one class of citizen to distribute to another class. This is a violation of the eighth commandment (Thou shall not steal).

Subsidiarity is a principle that encourages decisions to be made at the lowest possible level. It’s best for everyone if people and local governments take responsibility for local issues. If the poor or vulnerable need help, it’s best to allow the private sector or the local governments to act, not the big Federal government.  When big government inserts itself into addressing these problems, there are fewer resources for the private sector to solve them.

Which Candidate Wants Big Government?

Which political party/candidate wants bigger government? (Akan, 2024)

Harris wants to use the power of government to reign in abuses by businesses. Trump wants to remove regulations that hold back businesses.

Harris wants to use government investments (taxpayer money) to boost manufacturing.  Trump wants to use capitalism, create a positive environment for business to naturally boost manufacturing and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Harris wants more government spending in numerous areas of the economy. Harris also wants to pay student loans and offer tax incentives for individuals.  Trump wants to strengthen the private sector by continuing tax cuts.

Summary

As in most elections, evaluating the candidates takes effort. Please look at the results of government’s past good intentions and how they have hurt Christian values and society’s social constructs.

Works Cited

Akan, J. B. (2024). Retrieved from https://www.theepochtimes.com/: https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-and-harris-a-policy-comparison-5733386

Fight Chronic Disease. (2024). The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease in the. Retrieved from https://www.fightchronicdisease.org/: https://www.fightchronicdisease.org/sites/default/files/docs/GrowingCrisisofChronicDiseaseintheUSfactsheet_81009.pdf

Friedman, M. (2024, October 18). The Four Legitimate Functions of Government.

House Budget Committee. (2023, April 4). A Growing Culture of Government Dependency. Retrieved from https://budget.house.gov/: https://budget.house.gov/resources/staff-working-papers/a-growing-culture-of-government-dependency

Inequality.org. (2020). Income Inequality. Retrieved from https://inequality.org/: https://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/

Leake, J. (2022). Cancer Deaths Spiked in 2021 & 2022. Courageous Discourse.

Livingston, G. (2018, April 25). The Changing Profile of Unmarried Parents. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/04/25/the-changing-profile-of-unmarried-parents/

Rector, R. S. (2015, September 15). The War on Poverty After 50 Years. Retrieved from https://www.heritage.org/: https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/report/the-war-poverty-after-50-years

Sawhill, I. V. (2003, September 1). The Behavioral Aspects of Poverty. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-behavioral-aspects-of-poverty/

Tax Policy Center. (2024).

https://taxpolicycenter.org/.

Retrieved from How much does the federal government spend on health care?: https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-much-does-federal-government-spend-health-care

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (n.d.). Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching. Retrieved from https://www.usccb.org/: https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching