Government can't give us anything without depriving us of something else.

Hazlitt’s line condenses a central theme of classical liberal and free‑market economics: the state has no resources of its own, so any benefit it dispenses must ultimately be financed by taking resources from someone else—through taxes, borrowing (future taxes), inflation, or regulation that shifts costs. The quote is aimed at exposing the illusion of “free” government provision and at directing attention to tradeoffs and opportunity costs. It also echoes Hazlitt’s broader insistence that sound economic thinking tracks not only the visible beneficiaries of a policy but also the dispersed, less visible people who pay for it.