Test Case

Last year, when New York City’s financial collapse was a political football, one of the shoddiest arguments the “liberals” used in order to schnorr a few kopeks from the Federal Government was the argument that New York City had impoverished itself by taking such good care of all those shoeless immigrants over the years. Ah yes, the wretched refuse of those scattered shores. Everyone swallowed that line. No one asked whether it was necessary for immigrants to be treated as charity cases. No one asked whether it was necessary to invoke the Federal Government and slap a tax on the Idaho apple grower simply because a few Polish peasants decide to strike it rich in the New World.

I got news for you. It isn’t necessary. Free markets provide plenty of food, clothing, shelter, and employment. New York City and everyone in it would have been richer and happier if the government had done nothing at all.

WR

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William F. Rickenbacker

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Last year, when New York City’s financial collapse was a political football, one of the shoddiest arguments the “liberals” used in order to schnorr a few kopeks from the Federal Government was the argument that New York City had impoverished itself by taking such good care of all those shoeless immigrants over the years. Ah yes, the wretched refuse of those scattered shores. Everyone swallowed that line. No one asked whether it was necessary for immigrants to be treated as charity cases. No one asked whether it was necessary to invoke the Federal Government and slap a tax on the Idaho apple grower simply because a few Polish peasants decide to strike it rich in the New World.

I got news for you. It isn’t necessary. Free markets provide plenty of food, clothing, shelter, and employment. New York City and everyone in it would have been richer and happier if the government had done nothing at all.