The reason why statists have been so aggressive about spending other peoples’ money through government coercion is because, like most of the rest of our culture, they have been indoctrinated in the morality of altruism. They actually think that forced redistribution of wealth for the benefit of the “less fortunate” is moral, and they feel virtuous in doing it — and in doing it by force.
Too often, that belief serves as a rationalization for a deeper and uglier motive, which goes hand in hand psychologically and philosophically with altruism. That is the twisted attempt to give meaning and validation to their own sorry lives through what they do for others. The desire, and even the need, to control the lives of those others follows directly from that.
That’s why Ayn Rand always said that it’s not enough to advocate capitalism on “practical” grounds; it has to be defended on moral grounds. Until the morality of altruism is replaced in the minds and hearts of the people with a respect for reason, rights, individual sovereignty and dignity, and rational self-interest, the statists will remain armed with their most dangerous weapon: an evil and destructive moral code.
In order to accomplish this, what is needed is a moral and philosophic revolution led not by conservatives or “libertarians,” but by radicals for capitalism.