She tells the story of three boys who came to her door in December, offering to shovel the snow from her driveway and sidewalk. Though she had a snowblower, the lads made an offer that made sense to her and saved her the work of clearing the snow herself.
When they were done, she offered to pay them for some additional tasks and they agreed. In the end, they earned three times what they had originally expected to when they knocked on her door.
When she paid them, she remarked to them how unusual it was to see boys their age (about 15) out working hard to earn some of their own money. One of them was glad and said that mean more work (and money) for them.
But then Tonchi started wondering what it might be like if she did business like many in the federal government want us to do things.
I wonder if those boys would have been as productive if I’d told them I would pay them the agreed-upon price, but after they had finished the job I would deduct 30 percent from their pay and give it to the other boys in the neighborhood who were not so industrious?
I could explain that it isn’t fair that these kids with the shovels should have all the money; surely those other kids sitting at home deserve to have money, too. If they complained about my confiscation of what they had earned, I could just call them “greedy” and tell them it is better to “spread the wealth around.”
Would these boys have cheered her fairness and compassion? Doubtful. Yet the socialists running our government expect us to do just that–turn over our hard-earned income to people who have not earned it and usually haven’t even done anything to deserve it.
The wisdom Tonchi points out from Jefferson has never been more applicable than today:
To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.
Can we really be considered a free people if our government forces us to labor for others, Tonchi asks?
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