Welfare Golf

Thomas Sowell's column today is, on the surface, about something I have no interest in whatsoever: golf courses.

But the issue of government subsidized golf courses in San Francisco points to a greater truth about socialism and the welfare state:

The great allure of government programs in general for many people is that these programs allow decisions to be made without having to worry about the constraints of prices, which confront people at every turn in a free market.

They see prices as just obstacles or nuisances, instead of seeing them as messages conveying underlying realities that are there, whether or not prices are allowed to function.

This truth has a great deal to do with why state control of anything multiplies inefficiencies and out-of-control spending. It also has a lot to do with why socialism and the welfare state are acid to the moral fiber of society: it insulates people from reality and allows them to make stupid and irresponsible, and sometimes morally bankrupt, decisions.