Topic: Government, Wealth Transfer, Matches 11 quotes.

United States has adopted much socialism

We here in the United States, in converting our government into a social welfare state, have ourselves adopted much of socialism. Specifically, we have to an alarming degree adopted the use of the power of the state in the control and distribution of the fruits of industry. We are on notice according to the words of the President, that we are going much further, for he is quoted as saying:

“We’re going to take all the money we think is unnecessarily being spent and take it from the ‘haves’ and give it to the ‘have nots.’” (1964 Congressional Record, p. 6142, Remarks of the President to a Group of Leaders of Organizations of Senior Citizens in the Fish Room, March 24, 1964.)

Source: Elder Marion G. Romney
General Conference, April 1966

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Socialism; Welfare

American Ideals Corrupted

One of the great wrongs going on in America today is the idea held by millions of people that they have the right to enjoy the things of life which they have never earned. It is a form of dishonesty that is corrupting the youth of today, it has already corrupted millions. It has produced an aversion to hard work. Idleness and the love of pleasure have taken away many of our American ideals given to us by the fathers of this nation. The hate of man for man has grown in this country as it has grown in the lands across the seas. These forces have torn down religious ideals, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord finds little lodgment in the hearts of men. Our civilization is suffering from a breakdown in character because our teachings have not had a sufficient effect on the actions and lives of individuals. We speak of reforms. Human nature can only be reformed by a strengthening of prophetic religion. A new day for social betterment can come only through the revelations of God to his people—the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. Benjamin Franklin warned us in the Constitutional convention at the very birth of this nation that our government will end in despotism if the people become corrupt. This nation must turn back to God.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Culture; Government, Wealth Transfer; Welfare

Elements Of Success

I am not a defeatist. I believe there is more good in men than bad and that the good will triumph. I am sure, too, that the people of the United States will, through work, create wealth and in that creation give employment and happiness, if only the natural laws upon which free enterprise has been established are allowed to freely operate. But wealth cannot be created in sufficient amount to go around and bring prosperity to all the people if those laws are seriously contravened by any group in our society,—capital, labor, or government. Nothing but work can create wealth in this day and age,—productive work of the laborer. Other manipulations may seem to do it but they do not create real wealth that feeds and clothes and houses and makes happy people. The Government cannot do it because in final analysis it is not possessed of the elemental necessities for the creation of wealth. Of itself it has no capital and it has no labor. All that it can do is take from one and give to another. It takes by txation, its only ultimate source of revenue; and it gives in wages, subsidies, bounties, and many other ways, but it does not create wealth and the creation of wealth lies at the basis of prosperity.

I want to make it distinctly clear that I am not attacking the motives or intentions of the Government or governmental agencies who have sought to meet emergencies and difficult situations with much novel and experimental legislation. I have never desired failure for any of the experiments. I have always wished for their success and I think some have succeeded. I disclaim any intention or any effort to influence partisan politics. My sole desire is to expound the principles of sound economics as I conceive them and believe in them and as I deem them to be in harmony with the well-established and time-tested principles of our religion.

Source: Elder Stephen L. Richards
General Conference, October 1939

Topics: Economics; Government, Wealth Transfer; Welfare

The present hour witnesses a crisis, the like of which we have never known before in our history. The fine morale of the nation has been broken, and this has brought about a condition of bitterness and hate, for people have lost their regard for the power of government and for the sanctity of the law. Envy and jealousy, and hate of neighbor for neighbor have crowded out our nobler altruistic feelings. Groups of men, unmindful of human rights, are clamoring for changes in our government. Our resources are being wasted. The looting of the public wealth has become a recognized industry, and the men who practice it are as highly trained as men in the skilled employments and professions. The sorrowful thing is that these men are entrenched behind the walls of political trickery. One of the greatest plagues today is the disregard for authority and law in government, and there is growing up in our social world an aversion toward hard work. Can it be that modern thought is discarding the influence of Providence in the affairs of men? The truth that government is instituted by the hand of God was uppermost in the minds of our forebears when the Constitution was formulated; this thought inspired the very lives of Washington and Lincoln; and Jesus Christ our Lord taught us that governments without the spirit of humble faith in the Master, cannot live.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1936

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Government, Wealth Transfer; Politics

Some eighty years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States in Savings and Loan Association vs. Topeka (22 Law. Ed. 461) declared “to lay, with one hand, the power of government on the property of the citizen, and with the other to bestow it upon favored individuals . . . is nonetheless a robbery because it is done under the forms of law and is called taxation.” Also in those days before it became legal, and even respectable, to forcibly redistribute the earnings of some citizens in order to secure the vote and favor of others, the forgotten clause of the Fifth Amendment was as carefully adhered to as is another clause today. I refer to the clause which says, “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”

Source: W. C. Mullendore
Published in The Freeman, January 1957

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer

I want to impress upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints not to covet that which belongs to any public institution, or that which belongs to any city, or county, or the government of the United States. Unless I have been misinformed, many people have said, speaking of the distribution by the government of supplies to the people: “Well, others are getting some, why should not I get some of it.”

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Honesty; Welfare

Forty-five Years Ago And Now

I believe that there is a growing disposition among the people to try to get something from the government of the United States with little hope of ever paying it back. I think this is all wrong. I believe that there is not that same moral sense among the people today that there was forty-five years ago.

Source: President Heber J. Grant
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Honesty; Responsibility; Welfare

Self-seekers Not In Need

I was impressed with what President Grant said with regard to those seeking help who do not need it. It seems to be a peculiar feeling or attitude, on the part of many citizens of this nation, that whenever the government has anything to give away, they are desirous of obtaining it, even though they may not actually need it, and are able to support themselves without. That seems to me a rather selfish attitude. I think that we ought to strive to be self-supporting, and, as far as possible, independent of help from other sources.

Source: Elder Sylvester Q. Cannon
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Responsibility

Brother Grant referred, in his opening remarks, to relief from the government. I approach this subject with a great deal of feeling and strong conviction. The thought that we should get all we can from the government because everybody else is getting it, is unworthy of us as American citizens. It will debauch us. Judged by my standards it is wicked, and followed out it will destroy us. The government of the United States has not and can not supply the funds necessary to carry on relief work on that basis. We must be as careful with government funds as with our own or as with the Church’s. Patriotism, loyalty, decency, everything demands that such shall be our course.

Source: President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
General Conference, October 1933

Topics: Government, Wealth Transfer; Welfare

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