However,
the economic shortcomings are only half of the equation. When I’m receiving government money
that I didn’t really earn and I don’t really need does that fall inline with
the original intention of the program?
And does knowing this take its toll on one’s integrity--their sense of
honor. I hear a lot of talk about
social programs starting off with the best intentions but then their permanence
manipulates the people into a slothful dependency, lessening their desire for
an honest days work, rewarded by an honest days pay. When “funemployment” becomes a commonly used term to
describe the process then the flaws in both the system and participant becomes
apparent.
Today’s unemployment situation is only one aspect of
the greater significance of increased reliance on Washington’s financial
giveaways and it raises a lot of questions about what is honorable and what is
dishonorable concerning government money.
News of record participation in disability and food stamp programs
abound, while Welfare spending has sharply surged. Now we get to contend with the Affordable Care Act and
subsidize health insurance premiums along with existing government healthcare
programs like Medicaid. Of course,
many would conclude that the weak economy is to blame for these increases, but
keep in mind that while unemployment went down from 10% to 8%; expenditures on
these programs went up. All in
all, roughly half of Americans live in a household that receives some type of
government assistance. With so
much over-participation in these “safety nets” how can this become anything but
an economic train wreck.
We’ve
all heard stories about rampant fraud when it comes to, so called, entitlement
programs. Cities are lined with
medical shops that constantly abuse the system. Many of us have seen government cards whipped out at
convenience stores for products that don’t qualify as food. Then there’s the famous clip of the woman at
an Obama/Biden rally who lends her support, expecting a future where she won’t
have to worry about paying her mortgage or buying gas for her car. Isn’t that incredible? My parent’s generation would have been
insulted if someone else paid for their living expenses and it’s not because
they were suckers. It’s because
they realized it would have shamed their honor, igniting unhealthy trends for
themselves and all those around them.
It used to be it was wrong to take without giving. Now you’d be considered a fool to have such
a notion. And by the way, when it
comes to the national debt, there are many economic incentives to hastening
it’s elimination like currency stabilization and to maintain high credit
ratings, but one huge reason that I never hear is that paying your debts is
simply the right thing to do. It
is wrong to owe others for so long.
You wouldn’t want to make a loan that never got paid. Nor, would I. And I think if we began to view the elimination of debt,
both personal and governmental, as a moral obligation then we’d act more
decisively.
But
beyond economics and integrity there is a third reason we should be suspicious
about the new society of takers we’ve created. Alexis De Tocqueville said, “The American Republic will
endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the
public’s money.” Isn’t it fairly
obvious that both political parties, especially the Democrats, are bribing the
electorate for votes? There’s cash
for clunkers, mortgage programs, healthcare, retirement payments, prescription
drug plans, tuition funding, and I haven’t even scratched the surface. They’ll call it social justice, they’ll
call it human rights, and they’ll even inadequately label it as progress; but
at the end of the day it’s merely a kickback for votes--pure and simple.
But
where will it all lead if we continue down this dark path? 19th Century historian,
Alexander Tyler identifies certain chilling similarities between the histories
of the worlds’ democracies:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply
cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will
continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they
can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From
that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise
the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every
democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is)
always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations
from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those
200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
