The Perpetual Challenge of Modern Government

"This challenge requires that government finally master a delicate balancing act between opportunity and security -- between growth and fairness. To grow, a democratic capitalist economy requires strong economic incentives for investment, including low taxes and minimum regulation. To be fair, it must provide some goods and services to those who cannot provide for themselves, which will inevitably take resources away from growth. Enacting too much social spending is a cruel policy, not a humane one, because it weakens the system's capacity to serve everyone. . . It is fashionable to say that communism and socialism have been discredited. But they will not be completely discredited until government overcomes its tendency to ignore the simple fact that too much social spending saps an economy's ability to produce the funds necessary to finance the social programs."

Richard Nixon, Beyond Peace, 1994.

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