Written by Connor Boyack
Due to continually creeping socialism and the ever-expanding welfare state, American citizens are now being raised with an entitlement mentality. Rather than being instilled with a desire to work hard and follow the law of the harvest, children are ingrained with the errant notion that they will be able to depend on government for their social well-being (often termed “security“).
A recent column in Newsweek paints the picture:
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—programs that
serve older people—already exceed 40 percent of the $2.7 trillion
federal budget. By 2030, their share could hit 75 percent of the
present budget, projects the Congressional Budget Office. The result: a
political impasse.
The 2030 projections are daunting. To keep federal spending stable
as a share of the economy would mean eliminating all defense spending
and most other domestic programs (for research, homeland security, the
environment, etc.). To balance the budget with existing programs at
their present economic shares would require, depending on assumptions,
tax increases of 30 percent to 50 percent—or budget deficits could
quadruple. A final possibility: cut retirement benefits by increasing
eligibility ages, being less generous to wealthier retirees or trimming
all payments.
Little wonder politicians stay silent.
The entitlement mentality is promoted by Congress, who, courting the
votes of their constituents, aims to be a quasi breadwinner who will
provide them with a dole. They are seen as the protectors of future
wealth whose job it is to secure free money for those who think they
“deserve” it. Frederic Bastiat, the noted French statesman and author, explained why this is a fallacy:
You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you
turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with
milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a
source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for
the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other
classes have been forced to send it in. If every person draws from the
treasury the amount that he has put in it, it is true that the law then
plunders nobody. But this procedure does nothing for the persons who
have no money. It does not promote equality of income. The law can be
an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and
gives to other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of
plunder.
Ed Emery argues the point as well:
Not many generations ago, people just wanted government
to leave them alone. Now, some want government to be fully responsible
for them, regardless of the impact on others. Instead of asking, “how
can I help my neighbors?” – the question is “what do we want!?” “When
do we want it?” It reflects the entitlement mentality of our day.
Society has moved from independence to dependence and from security
to anxiety. Government has failed to provide true security. Security
does not come from government programs but from building my life around
absolutes that cannot be taken away. Security comes from absolutes such
as character, a good name, or a sovereign God.
Nowhere is this entitlement mentality more apparent than when a
person falls victim to a tragedy, whether intentional or otherwise.
Rush Limbaugh noticed this disturbing trend after 9/11 and commented as follows:
I just can’t let the numbers pass by because it says
something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this
country.
If you lost a family member in the September 11th attack, you’re
going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee
of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million. If you are a surviving
family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check
you get is a $6,000, direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.
Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse,
you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there’s a payment of $211
per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those
payments come to a screeching halt.
Keep in mind that some of the people that are getting an average of
$1.185, million up to $4.7 million, are complaining that it’s not
enough.
We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the
Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same
deal that the September 11th families are getting.
In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the
embassies are now asking for compensation as well. You see where this
is going, don’t you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of
entitlement politics in this country. It’s just really sad.
Those who sit around and siphon the national coffers—indeed, thinking that they have a right,
or are entitled, to do so—violate the principles of individual liberty
and spit in the face of all those who work and toil to fund their
entitlements.
We all fall victim to tragedies throughout our life. Who am I,
should I become injured while walking down the street, to demand that
you give me some of your money? If a baseball lands on my windshield, I
have no right to turn to the guy next to me and rip a $20 bill out of
his wallet. We should not be funding each others’ misfortunes.
The simple fact is that this entitlement mentality will soon lead to our economic demise.
Have we ignored the lessons we are to learn from civilizations that
have come and gone, fallen due to their folly? Do we think that our
entitlement system can continue to balloon forever?
This mentality must be fought, and the principles of prosperity
which our forefathers understood better than we do must be ingrained in
our minds and those of the rising generation. Our economic survival
depends upon it. - - - Connor Boyack is a blogger , husband, web designer, Latter-day Saint, constitutionalist, paleocon, classical liberal, preparedness practitioner, budding philanthropist, and master's student of political economy. He's from Poway, CA but lives in Happy Valley.
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