The Real Fraud in Minnesota (and Everywhere Else)

Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently condemned the welfare fraud in Minnesota, stating, “The Democrats have skin in the game of keeping this fraud—this is the largest fraud ever recorded, over $9 billion stolen from the taxpayers and sent to Somalians.” While conservatives like Cruz are trying to blame Democrats for the rampant fraud, they are equally guilty. Both Republicans and Democrats embrace the fraudulent morality that gives rise to the welfare system.

When Lyndon Johnson launched his “war on poverty” in 1964, he vowed to eliminate poverty in America. Despite trillions of dollars being spent ($1.19 trillion in fiscal year 2022 alone) on programs such as food stamps, housing vouchers, Medicaid, job training, Supplemental Security Income, and child care, poverty has not been eliminated. Compared to the amount spent on welfare programs over the years, the fraud in Minnesota is chump change.

Undoubtedly, the welfare system has helped many people in need. However, that help has come at the expense of millions of taxpayers, many of whom have had to forgo their own needs and desires. While defenders of the welfare system can point to the beneficiaries, they conveniently ignore the victims.

If your neighbor stuck a gun in your face and demanded that you pay for his family’s groceries, or his daughter’s surgery, or his rent, you would recognize his action as armed robbery. The principle does not change when the government acts as your neighbor’s proxy.

While many are outraged at welfare fraud, they believe that society benefits from welfare programs. This is akin to claiming that armed robbery benefits society.

Few question the morality of the welfare system because few question the morality that gives rise to it—altruism. Altruism holds that we have a moral duty to put the needs of others before our own. We must sacrifice our own interests to the interests of others. The welfare system is founded on altruism, and that system is imposed on taxpayers through government coercion.

Nobody has ever rationally explained how sacrificing one’s values is beneficial to one’s life because such an explanation is impossible. Sacrificing your values is not the path to happiness. Yet, most Americans accept the notion that self-sacrifice is noble.

Ayn Rand once noted, “It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.” Altruists hide their motives behind a veil of virtue.

The scale of the welfare fraud in Minnesota is certainly alarming. But the real fraud is not financial. The real fraud is the morality that gives rise to the welfare system.