The Law

I just finished reading The Law by Frederic Bastiat. Its pretty dang good. It clearly illustrates what the limits of government should be.
I was pretty intrigued with his idea of false philanthropy. This false philanthropy is essentially forced charity where one group is forced to provide for another group. I have always thought it would be far better to replace things like Social Security, Medicaid, and other welfare type programs with churches and other charitable organizations. I imagine that if I received a 15.4% raise, by eliminating just social security and medicare taxes, I could contribute far more to my church. They then could use this money to help the poor and the needy. I would also argue that they could operate it far more efficiently and with far less waste then the current bureaucracy operates.