It is easy to understand the enthusiasm and the air of euphoria surrounding those who were fortunate enough to win the lottery for one of the 98 Harbourside Village properties that was held recently. Getting a home for $199,000 that is worth much much more is a prize worth having. Home ownership in Bermuda is not a picnic.

In the ecstasy of the moment as the lucky winners contemplated a $900,000 house for under $200,000, I am sure little thought was given to those who are paying the bill ? a bill that comes to 98 times $700,000 or a total of $68.6 million, or roughly $1,200 per Bermudian.

What was seen were the fortunate winners; what was not seen were the people who have to pay the cost. What was seen were politicians acting like Santa Claus with the other people?s money. What will not be seen is the inevitable corruption that arises when Government plays the role of Robin Hood ? taking from some and giving to others under the guise of social justice or some other noble-sounding phrase. As George Orwell wrote many years ago ?political language is designed to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind?.

Government has indicated that it wishes to create affordable housing and in the process guaranteeing the right to a decent home. What this means is that other Bermudians will have to give up other projects they have in mind to meet the cost of providing others with affordable housing. The question that arises is this: should free men and women be compelled to produce homes for other people if that is not what they want to do? It means, in effect, that government must coerce us, the losers, into labouring for others who are the lottery winners. That was what slavery was all about and that is why slavery was abolished in 1834. Instead of labouring for their families and themselves, they are providing housing for others whilst the political classes take the credit for being compassionate.

The right to affordable housing is seductive because everyone wants to live in a house with modern amenities and the public have been brainwashed into believing that there is a right to accommodation that is affordable. The cold fact is that there can be no such right. Houses consist largely of the labour of other people, builders, plumbers, masons, electricians, architects, and so on. So the right to affordable housing means in reality the right to demand that other people supply the labour necessary for housing. Boiled down to its essentials that is what is called slavery. What starts off as a simple wish for affordable housing turns out to be authority for life and death decisions to be made politicians and bureaucrats over the lives of people.

Let me shift gears now.

If you need $200,000 to buy a house there are 4 ways to get it:

1. Use a gun and compel someone to hand over their wallet, or defraud some old rich guy. The trouble is that such methods are time consuming and are also against the law, and you run the risk of being sent to the slammer although by all accounts that does not deter many people.

2. You can go out and do some serious panhandling and hope that people will be generous and drop a few coins onto your hand. A number of people try this in Hamilton and seem to get by.

3. Get a job and earn the $200,000 over the years, or get a mortgage because you have a good job ? this is the way most people obtain funds and it has the advantage of being lawful and leads to society being better off.

4. Persuade a majority of politicians that you are deserving of a handout. Laws will then be passed, or lotteries will be held to take money in taxation from other poor people ? and it will be passed on to you as a government gift by a generous politician.

Increasingly, number 4 ? a Government handout or something for nothing ? is the preferred option of many Bermudians as it means you can avoid the risk of going to jail, and you can avoid the inconvenience of having to beg or going to work. Confiscating your neighbour?s bank balance can be achieved by using the ballot to elect a few sympathetic politicians instead of wielding a knife.

We can take $1,200 from every Bermudian by the simple process of passing of a law. Politicians can then claim that they are compassionate ? a false claim as they are giving away other people?s money and not their own but then, when has the truth been important in today?s politics? At the end of the day, there is nothing to stop this plunder except the eventual exhaustion of the taxpayer?s resources. By means of this confidence trick, are we not breaking the Eighth Commandment: ?Thou shalt not steal.? We all know it is wrong to steal whether the thief is an individual or a group of individuals who steal under the guise of government benevolence.

It seems that wherever affordable housing or government handouts are involved, the commandment ?Thou shalt not steal,? is altered by our father who art in the Cabinet Office to say: ?Thou shalt not steal, except for what thou deemest to be a worthy cause, where thou thinkest that thou canst use the loot for a better purpose than wouldst the victim of the theft.?

Let me shift gears again.

Over the past ten years or so, Bermudians have leaned towards the idea of Government help, and a minority of Bermudians have converted the Government into a false deity that provides them with paternalistic care and sustenance in the form of such things as retirement, education, health care, unemployment compensation, food, housing, clothing, subsidies, protectionism, and amusement, whenever the people need them.

In the process, they have made Government their golden calf, which they have come to worship, adore, support, and follow. People who are housed, and subsidised by, government will soon be driven to the status of cattle.

By placing their government god alongside or even ahead of their other God ? the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ? they have overlooked the first of God?s Ten Commandments: ?Thou shalt have no other gods before me.?

As a result, the great idol of our time is increasingly Government. But it is not God; it is a device operated by mere mortals. If government is now an idol, is it not like any other graven image into which men have read supernatural powers and superhuman capacities?

Government can feed us when we are hungry; put a roof over our heads; heal us when we are ill; put us on a diet when we are overweight; it can raise wages and lower prices, even at the same time; it can educate our children without cost and without any effort on their part; it can provide pensions in old age. There is no activity or occupation free of its meddling. If you don?t believe that, check the blue pages in the telephone directory. What cannot government do for us if only we have faith in its miraculous powers?

The essence of the recent lottery is to create obvious and politically popular winners whilst ignoring the people who bear the cost. There is one certainty in all of this - the power of Government and the bureaucracy is increased, and the freedom of the individual is diminished.

Therein is the paradox. By being Christian and having the taxpayer support those who won the lottery, we are effectively breaking the first and eighth commandments by worshipping an all powerful God called Government who takes care of us, pretty much as our parents used to do when we were children.

Do I exaggerate? Probably, but only for effect. But there are choices to be made. Do we continue to practise personal responsibility and be accountable to God for our choices, or do we pass on all our financial problems to an all powerful God who lives in the Cabinet Office ? and forget about the Ten Commandments?

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