What started out as a moderate call for common ground on this issue turns into a complete capitulation to the principles and outlook of the Left. The assumption here is that “society,” not the individual, is the ultimate standard of moral value. The interests of society are supreme and everything the individual has—including the products of a lifetime of effort, and all the hopes you have for your children—can be sacrificed to it.

To make that clear, let’s try looking at this from a purely individualist perspective, in which there is no such thing as the collective interests of society, just an individual who has worked his whole life to create wealth on the assumption that he will get to decide what happens to it, and looks to government to protect that right.

Looking at this from the perspective of the individual is the only thing that actually makes sense, because there is no such collective entity as “society.” There are only individuals. Government can only protect our persons and property individually, one at a time, and if it takes money from one person, the benefits don’t go to “society” as a collective entity. They go to other individuals. Those individuals are usually located within the environs of Washington DC—quite often on K Street—which is one of the reasons the federal government collects and spends more money now than ever before, yet doesn’t seem to be making any progress on all of that lofty rhetoric about the greater good of “society.”