This week there was a story on Yahoo! News that made my
blood run cold. Here it is:
For those who clicked on the link, skip to the next paragraph. For those who did not, the crux is this: A fourth-grader came home with a crayon-scrawled note in his own hand, dictated to him by his teacher: "I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure."
Now, let's give the teacher in question the benefit of the doubt, and say she was just trying to make a point. Benjamin Franklin said, "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
He's right. Unfortunately, our current society is taking exactly the opposite bent. Don't have a job? The government has programs to provide your income. Welfare and unemployment insurance guarantee an income if you lose your job or are unable to work. There's also heating assistance for the winter months, utility assistance for electricity and gas if you can't pay your bills. There's WIC for food assistance, social security for when we get old, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, housing assistance, school lunch programs, Obamaphones... There's a government program for just about everything.
It's become so easy to just depend on our government. I mean, after all, they are there to give us a safety net, right? To make sure we all succeed? And anyone who doesn't support every one of these programs hates old people, and would throw their grandma off a cliff. They want to starve children and kick Aunt Martha out onto the street. Anyone who even voices a doubt about a single entitlement program wants people to get sick and die. Sure, some people are going to work the system simply because they are lazy or think the world owes them something, but those "safety nets" are so essential, it's worth selling your children and grandchildren into slavery just to keep them going.
Right?
Look at this from a common sense approach: No one wants to see people get sick and die. No one wants children to go hungry. We all care. We just don't all see the same solution.
But the fact is, when you sign on to to government program, you give the government one more degree of control over your life. Housing assistance? Sure, but you will live in a government housing project. And we all know those are high-quality buildings, well-maintained and in good neighborhoods with excellent schools. Like Cabrini Green. Anyone remember a show called Good Times? Food assistance? Sure, there's WIC (Women/Infants/Children). But you can only buy items that we (the government) approve. And let's look at something else: Those programs are so overburdened by fraud, waste and abuse, the benefits that actually get to the people who need them don't amount to a fart in a whirlwind. And that doesn't even account for the "administrative fees" that get siphoned off somewhere between the tax input and Aunt Martha's checking account. From the latest figures, only about 30 cents of each dollar actually does the job it's intended to do. That's a pathetic return of investment, not to mention the "robber baron" policies of uneven taxation involved to fund these worthless boondoggles.
Yes. I said "return of investment." After all, I can because Nancy Pelosi used the phrase "investment in our future" countless times in her campaign to raise taxes for her "balanced approach." Harry Reid cited the exact same talking point. So these programs are "an investment." Can someone tell me what the return is that these investments are reaping, besides more widespread poverty and dependence on programs? Right now, as I right this, 1/6 of our country is living below the poverty level. More people are on food stamps and WIC than any other time in our history. One in eleven eligible workers is unemployed or can't get enough work hours to pay their bills. And the government's answer is "Tax more, spend more!"
Why not? It worked in France, didn't it? It worked in Greece, and in England. I don't see what all those riots and demonstrations are about. I mean, all we lost was our international credit rating. Not to worry; China is buying our debt. Just because they are our potential deadly enemies and want to destroy us economically doesn't mean a thing.
When you owe someone, you become their servant. That debt hangs over your head like a club, and as long as you owe the other, you have to do what they tell you. Don't you think even for a second that those programs we depend on, that we receive from, are debt?
Our turn to pay the piper is coming, people. We'll be lucky if we only end up where Greece is. If you keep bleeding the host, sooner or later it dies. Then where are your programs? What good is then debating about the loss of our security vs our liberty, after we lose both?
Can we wake up before it's too late? I certainly hope so
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