If you subsidize something, you get ___ of it.

At Ace of Spades they've been discussing the deficit, and how we might reduce government spending. One commenter wrote,

For most of human history (before 1960) people were motivated to work hard and make smart fiscal and personal choices--because if you didn't, you died.

If you spent all your money on clothes, you starved to death--because back then the government didn't hand out food stamps (which are actually credit cards now).

If you didn't save for retirement, then when you quit working you lived in the streets or with your family if they would have you.

Now that government has ensured that people pay absolutely no price for making bad decisions, how can we be surprised when people keep making them?

What happens in America today if someone spends all their income on drugs? Well you can get a Section-8 voucher for free housing, food stamps to feed yourself, and almost every city offers money to the poor in some fashion or another. If you're 65 you can get on Medicare--regardless of whether you paid anything into it--and if you're under 65 and poor you can get Medicaid and have taxpayers pay for your medical care.

I think it's time we revert to a society in which people pay for their mistakes. I suspect we'll find they make a lot fewer of them.

I have no problem with taxpayers helping people who are mentally and physically disabled, but a society where 50% of citizens are supported by the state isn't viable.

Well said.