It’s not good for government to tell people that the world owes them a living and that things are free.

Weld’s remark expresses a classical-liberal/market-oriented critique of expansive welfare-state rhetoric: when government implies that citizens are entitled to a “living” or that public benefits are “free,” it can weaken norms of self-reliance and obscure the real costs of policy (taxation, debt, or opportunity costs). The line also gestures toward a moral argument about responsibility—prosperity is framed as something earned through work and initiative rather than guaranteed by the state. In political debate, such phrasing typically functions as a warning against dependency and against politicians using “free” promises to win support while shifting burdens onto others.