"But without a caring society, without each citizen voluntarily accepting the weight of responsibility, government is destined to grow even larger, taking more of your money, burrowing deeper into your lives"

The passage stakes a claim about the relationship between civic virtue and the size and scope of government. It argues that a free society relies on citizens who willingly shoulder duties, caring for neighbors, supporting families, joining local associations, and contributing time and resources, so that fewer problems must be solved through centralized power. When that voluntary fabric frays, unmet needs do not disappear; they migrate upward to public institutions, which expand to fill the void.

The logic is both practical and moral. Practically, communities that solve problems locally reduce demand for distant bureaucracies and the taxes and rules required to sustain them. Morally, liberty is sustained by personal responsibility: the more people govern themselves, through norms, charity, and mutual aid, the less the state must govern them. “Taking more of your money” points to higher taxation; “burrowing deeper into your lives” signals regulatory reach, compliance mandates, and administrative oversight that accompany expanded programs.

Embedded is a Tocquevillean insight: associations and social capital act as buffers against centralization. The principle of subsidiarity, handling matters at the most immediate, competent level, animates the warning. If citizens habitually outsource responsibility, the state becomes the default caregiver, producing a feedback loop: greater reliance invites larger institutions, which can dull incentives for civic action, further weakening civil society.

There are limits to this vision. Some challenges, pandemics, systemic poverty, infrastructure, exceed the capacity of voluntary action and rightly demand collective, governmental responses. A robust safety net can enable, not replace, personal responsibility. The underlying tension is not government versus society but how to calibrate them so state capacity complements, rather than supplants, civic virtue.

The message urges cultivation of a caring culture, families, faith groups, neighborhoods, and nonprofits, as the first line of help. Where those thrive, government can be leaner and more restrained; where they wither, political authority inevitably grows to manage what personal and communal responsibility no longer covers.