The U.S. Constitution’s Preamble states that government must establish justice and promote the general welfare.

The Preamble reads in full:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In other words, the Constitution seeks to establish justice and promote the general welfare by specifying the fundamental laws of the nation. And the laws that the Constitution lays down strictly limit and enumerate the powers granted to the government. All powers not thus enumerated are left to the states and to individuals. It is the Constitution’s rule-of-law framework, under which the role of government is to be limited, and people are to be treated equally that ensures justice and the general welfare.

 

The Constitution does not dictate the nation’s economic system; we are not bound to be a capitalist society.

Amendments 4 and 5 provide explicit protections for private property:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Inherent in property rights is the right to use one’s property as one chooses – even if one chooses to employ it to make a profit.

 

Social Security and Medicare are just like private insurance plans.

No. Private insurance companies place their customers’ premiums in wealth-creating investments and then pay their claims from the profits.

Social Security and Medicare, by contrast, are pyramid schemes. Payroll taxes go to the Treasury where they are comingled with other government revenues and then spent. There is no meaningful investment. All claims are paid out of current revenue, borrowed money, or newly printed money. Both programs rely on increasing numbers of workers paying into the system to support retirees. And both programs are facing the same demographic problem as the ratio of workers to recipients drops. By 2034, it is expected that there will be only 2.0-2.3 workers per recipient.

Moreover, both Social Security and Medicare tax the young to subsidize the elderly. As a group, the elderly in this country are far wealthier than are the young. Taking money from the (relatively) poor and giving it to the (relatively) wealthy is not justice.

 

The U.S. needed central planning along with wage and price controls to win WWII.

The U.S. government largely left the arming of the country to private industry (see, for example, Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, by Arthur Herman).

We were able to outproduce our enemies in part because our industries were far less regulated than theirs and because businesses were often able to get around the regulations. For example, they overcame wage controls by offering benefits (e.g., retirement plans and health insurance) to the employees they needed.

Socialists often wax nostalgic about WWII.  And, given their beliefs, it makes perfect sense.  It was a time when people were united behind a government that was leading them toward a common goal.  Wars and natural disasters send us to the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy (survival), so people’s aspirations get very basic.  Given that, uniting people behind a common cause is simple.

In good times, however, people’s interests and priorities become diffuse.  Hence socialists’ need for William James’ “moral equivalent of war” as a means of creating unity.  As a result, we had one “war on <fill-in-the-blank>” after another.  If there is no crisis to unite people, politicians will invent one.

 

Richard Fulmer worked as a mechanical engineer and a systems analyst in industry. He is now retired and does free-lance writing. He has published some fifty articles and book reviews in free market magazines and blogs. With Robert L. Bradley Jr., Richard wrote the book, Energy: The Master Resource.