I was raised to believe that our laws were enacted to protect the minority from a "mob-rules" majority. The will of the many should not be able to strip the rights of the few. What smaller minority is there than the individual?

America is headed, unstoppably, into socialism. It didn't start with the election of 2008, that merely sped up the process. It didn't start with the inability of George W. Bush to veto any spending bills until halfway through his second term. It began during the Great Depression and has never turned back.

Citing Walter E. Williams on Townhall.com "According to Marxist doctrine, socialism is a stage of society between capitalism and communism where private ownership and control over property are eliminated. The essence of socialism is the attenuation and ultimate abolition of private property rights. Attacks on private property include, but are not limited to, confiscating the rightful property of one person and giving it to another to whom it doesn't belong. When this is done privately, we call it theft. When it's done collectively, we use euphemisms: income transfers or redistribution. It's not just left-wingers and Democrats who call for and admire socialism but right-wingers and Republicans as well.

 Republicans and right-wingers support taking the earnings of one American and giving them to farmers, banks, airlines and other failing businesses. Democrats and left-wingers support taking the earnings of one American and giving them to poor people, cities and artists. Both agree on taking one American's earnings to give to another; they simply differ on the recipients. This kind of congressional activity constitutes at least two-thirds of the federal budget.

 Regardless of the purpose, such behavior is immoral. It's a reduced form of slavery. After all, what is the essence of slavery? It's the forceful use of one person to serve the purposes of another person. When Congress, through the tax code, takes the earnings of one person and turns around to give it to another person in the forms of prescription drugs, Social Security, food stamps, farm subsidies or airline bail outs, it is forcibly using one person to serve the purposes of another.

 The moral question stands out in starker relief when we acknowledge that those spending programs coming out of Congress do not represent lawmakers reaching into their own pockets and sending out the money. Moreover, there's no tooth fairy or Santa Claus giving them the money. The fact that government has no resources of its very own forces us to acknowledge that the only way government can give one American a dollar is to first -- through intimidation, threats and coercion -- take that dollar from some other American.

 Some might rejoin that all of this is a result of a democratic process and it's legal. Legality alone is no guide for a moral people. There are many things in this world that have been, or are, legal but clearly immoral. Slavery was legal. Did that make it moral? South Africa's apartheid, Nazi persecution of Jews, and Stalinist and Maoist purges were all legal, but did that make them moral?

 Can a moral case be made for taking the rightful property of one American and giving it to another to whom it does not belong? I think not. That's why socialism is evil. It uses evil means (coercion) to achieve what are seen as good ends (helping people). We might also note that an act that is inherently evil does not become moral simply because there's a majority consensus.

 An argument against legalized theft should not be construed as an argument against helping one's fellow man in need. Charity is a noble instinct; theft, legal or illegal, is despicable. Or, put another way: Reaching into one's own pocket to assist his fellow man is noble and worthy of praise. Reaching into another person's pocket to assist one's fellow man is despicable and worthy of condemnation.

 For the Christians among us, socialism and the welfare state must be seen as sinful. When God gave Moses the commandment "Thou shalt not steal," I'm sure He didn't mean thou shalt not steal unless there's a majority vote. And I'm sure that if you asked God if it's OK just being a recipient of stolen property, He would deem that a sin as well."

In ATLAS SHRUGGED Ayn Rand's hero, John Galt, gives a speech to all of America even as the country is collapsing. John Galt has hijacked the doers and thinkers of the day and convinced them to go on strike, depriving the looters and moochers in society of their support. Below are links to an excellent series of videos that bring that speech to life. Watch, listen and learn. All of the signs of our economic apocalypse are present, what will you do to stave it off?

This is John Galt speaking: PART ONE

This is John Galt speaking: PART TWO

This is John Galt speaking: PART THREE & FOUR

This is John Galt speaking: PART FIVE

This is John Galt speaking: PART SIX

This is John Galt speaking: PART SEVEN

This is John Galt speaking: PART EIGHT

This is John Galt speaking: PART NINE

This is John Galt speaking: PART TEN

This is John Galt speaking: PART ELEVEN (This chapter has been removed from YouTube, assumed copyright issues regarding the music.

This is John Galt speaking: PART TWELVE

This is John Galt speaking: PART THIRTEEN

This is John Galt speaking: PART FOURTEEN

This is John Galt speaking: PART FIFTEEN

This is John Galt speaking: PART SIXTEEN

This is John Galt speaking: PART SEVENTEEN

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