In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other

No true Latter-day Saint and no true American can be a socialist or a communist or support programs leading in that direction. These evil philosophies are incompatible with Mormonism, the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because this is a worldwide church, we must also not be put into a public position of favoring one political philosophy over another. If the majority of citizens in a foreign country vote for a socialist government, we, as a church, should not do anything that would reflect adversely on that country’s political system. The church and its leaders must not be perceived as extremist.

So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community.

The gospel plan is based on individual responsibility. Our article of faith states the eternal truth "that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression" (A of F 1:2). This requirement of individual responsibility, which has many expressions in our doctrine, is in sharp contrast to Satan’s plan to "redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost ." (Moses 4:1). The plan of the Father and the Savior is based on individual choice and individual effort....

The doctrine and practice of personal responsibility and personal effort collide with individual traditions and local cultures in many lands. We live in a world where there are large differences in income and material possessions and where there are many public and private efforts to narrow these differences. The followers of the Savior are commanded to give to the poor, and many do. But some gifts have promoted a culture of dependency, reducing their recipients’ need for earthly food or shelter but impoverishing them in their eternal need for individual growth. The growth required by the gospel plan only occurs in a culture of individual effort and responsibility. It cannot occur in a culture of dependency. Whatever causes us to be dependent on someone else for decisions or resources we could provide for ourselves weakens us spiritually and retards our growth toward what the gospel plan intends us to be.

The gospel raises people out of poverty and dependency, but only when gospel culture, including the faithful payment of tithing even by the very poor, prevails over the traditions and cultures of dependency. That is the lesson to be learned from the children of Israel, who came out of hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt and followed a prophet into their own land and became a mighty people. That lesson can also be learned from the Mormon pioneers, who never used their persecutions or poverty as an excuse but went forward in faith, knowing that God would bless them when they kept His commandments, which He did.

Banks are an almost irresistible attraction for that element of our society which seeks unearned money.

I am for socialism, disarmament and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.

With numerous others, I am greatly disturbed at the rapid move of our government to socialism and what seems to be an approach toward dictatorship; with a controlled Supreme Court, the administration continues to impose more and more demands upon the people...Taxes are becoming back-breaking, expenditure and waste are alarming. The Church must remain independent and furnish its own funds for all its own adventures and projects. The government seems too anxious to give, give, give to the poor, to the aged, to the schools, to everyone, and blinded people feel they are getting something, whereas they pay it to the government so that the government can after great overhead expense return a part of it to the people. And every time a gift returns to the people--a so-called gift--it comes with fetters binding and tying and enslaving. For every block of funds given to the people, they lose a bigger block of liberty.

The Social Security system, as it is conceived and operated today, is not social, does not provide security, and does not qualify as a real system. It should be made voluntary in order to become social; it should be backed by reserves in order to become secure; and benefits should be computed on an actuarial basis to make it a system that is fair and impartial, to all participants, whether young or old.

I cannot help but think that there is a direct relationship between the present evil trends which I have above indicated, and the very marked tendency of the people of our country to pass on to the state the responsibility for their moral and economic welfare. This trend to a welfare state in which people look to and worship government more than their God, is certain to sap the individual ambitions and moral fiber of our youth unless they are warned and rewarned of the consequences. History, of course, is replete with the downfall of nations who, instead of assuming their own responsibility for their religious and economic welfare, mistakenly attempted to shift their individual responsibility to the government.