Honest opinion about government from Marilyn vos Savant:
In addition to buying votes, what's wrong with government doing the spending instead of our doing the spending ourselves? Consider this: When you spend your own money on yourself (such as buying yourself a tie or a handbag), you do an excellent job of keeping the cost down and getting exactly what you want. But when you spend your own money on someone else (such as buying a gift tie and handbag for your parents), you still keep the cost down, but you don't get them what they'd choose themselves. (Think about all the gifts you've ever received: What percentage of them would you have chosen yourself?)
Even worse, when you spend a third party's money on someone else, you not only don't get the recipient what he or she would choose, there's also no pressure to keep the cost under control. (Imagine being allowed to charge that gift tie and handbag to the "taxpayers" instead of to your own account: Would you worry about the cost?) This is what the government does, and in a massive way, every single day.
"Ask Marilyn," Parade, Oct. 9, 1994
Marilyn vos Savant is listed in the Guinness Hall of Fame for having the highest officially measured IQ – 228. Her column, "Ask Marilyn," is featured weekly in Parade. She has written a number of books, including Ask Marilyn (1992), The World's Most Famous Math Problem (1993), and I've Forgotten Everything I Learned in School! (1994).
Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.