George Leef Lectures on “When the Takers Overwhelm the Makers” at Hillsdale College
HILLSDALE, Mich. — The Office of the President at Hillsdale College hosted George Leef, director of editorial content for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, on March 28. Leef presented a lecture titled “When the Takers Overwhelm the Makers,” which was held in the Formal Lounge.
“America’s illness, of course, is not physical such as cancer, but is instead political and philosophical,” said Leef. “It stems from the fact that we have largely abandoned the nation’s foundations of individual liberty, private property, and limited government under the constitution in favor of a socialistic system where your property is not secure, the law is whatever officials, including unelected bureaucrats, declare it to be, and where the way to get what you want is to beg the government to give it to you.”
Leef argued the “takers” who want to live by taking away from others are overwhelming the “makers.” “Under the control of the takers, the United States will steadily decline in prosperity, as always happens in countries that abandon liberty in favor and equality,” he explained. “People will work less because the rewards are slight. They will consume their capital rather than invest it. Ambitious individuals will leave for other countries where they won’t be reviled and exploited, and our politics will become increasingly bitter as interest groups fight for larger shares of a shirking economic pie.”
Leef is the director of editorial content for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. He previously served as vice president of the John Locke Foundation and as director for research for the Pope Center. Leef has served as a policy advisor in the Michigan Senate and is a regular contributor on national news publications. In 2005 he authored “Free Choice for Workers: A History of the Right to Work Movement.”
For photos from the lecture, click here.
For a high-resolution copy of the Hillsdale College clocktower logo, click here.