“Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus.” The familiar refrains of Christmas carols herald the holiday season. It’s a magical time of year with special foods prepared, gifts selected and wrapped and the house and perhaps even the yard decorated. It’s especially delightful to watch children eagerly await the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Children aren’t the only ones who believe in Santa Claus, though.

Voters often elect politicians who tell them what they want to hear and promise them free stuff. Adults as well as children allow themselves to be deceived into thinking they’ll get something for nothing. Promises of free college, debt forgiveness, health care for all, guaranteed income, individual and corporate welfare programs, free cell phones, union protection and a myriad of other assurances entice voters to vote for Santa Claus.

Young children never question the source of gifts from Santa Claus As children age and become more aware of how the world works, they question how this giver of gifts can be all things to all children. Eventually, the secret is out. There is no Santa Claus. Someone spent money so the gifts would appear on Christmas morning.

Adults taken in by the free stuff promised by politicians seem to be uninterested in how this gifting is possible. They just want it and vote for it.
A rudimentary understanding of economics would reveal receiving free stuff is impossible. Someone always pays.

Just as the child’s Christmas gift from Santa must be paid for by someone, free stuff given away by politicians is paid for by someone else — namely taxpayers. The United States has printed money for years because Congress and presidents have spent more money than taxes generate. The staggering debt is unsustainable, yet Santa Claus seems to remain alive and well in the minds of voters.

Writing for the Foundation for Economic Education, Sandy Ikeda said the economist Ludwig von Mises called the use of coercion to redistribute wealth according to someone’s political preferences the Santa Claus principle. Ikeda called it “robbing Peter to stuff Paul’s stocking.”

The United States Constitution established a constitutional republic with democratically elected representatives to represent “we the people.” The system was brilliantly designed.

Avarice corrupts even the best plans.

Alexander Fraser Tytler, a Scotsman lecturing on democracy in the late 1700s described the progression. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”

Although Christmas is the season for giving, someone always pays for Santa’s gifts. Always.