If a man cuts his finger off while slicing salami at work,he blames the restaurant.
If you smoke three packs a day For 40 years and die of lung cancer,
your family blames the tobacco company..
If your neighbor crashes into a tree while driving home drunk, he blames the bartender.
If your grandchildren are Brats without manners,you blame television.
If your friend is shot by a Deranged madman, you blame the gun manufacturer.
And if a crazed person breaks into the cockpit and tries to kill the pilot at 35,000 feet, and the passengers kill him instead,the mother of the crazed deceased blames the airline.
I must have lived too long to understand the world as it is anymore.
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Let's start in 1849. People loaded up a wagon, pulled by horses or oxen, loaded all their possessions plus food and bedding, and set out across the west to go to California.
There were no cell phones, no freeway call-boxes, no responding police or cavalry.
There were hostile natioves who kind of resented the white eyes encroaching on their land. These natives did not contact an attorney. They responded like they had for hundreds of years--by killing the intruders.
Those going West did so for a promise. The promise was that it was there, and if you found it or woked for it, you could keep it.
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Men looking for jobs during the Depression
Now, let's go up to 1929. People out in the area now called "Flyover Country" still believed in earning and working for income. Goods and services were paid for by cash (Gold or greenbacks)
Meanwhile, back in New York, people who believed in making promises to pay on paper had over done it, which led to a crash, which led to a lot of people losing jobs.
So, these people who were out of work were emotionally impacted. The American Way was to earn your own way. But, due to circumstances beyond their control, they now had no way to earn that income.
The first Socialist President , Franklin Delano Roosevelt, invented the Liberal concept of Compassion (TRANSLATION: Take money from the people who have some money, and give it to those who don't. NOTE: You don't give them yours--You tax investors, wage earners, and producers)
Those who did not work could not expect to live like those who did.
I recall living next to the AT&SF in the 40's. Hobo's (homeless drifters who stole rides on freight cars) would appear at our door and knock. Their first statement was "Do you have some work a man could do for a meal?"
Now, move up to 1964:
The War on Poverty began with a $1 billion appropriation in 1964 and spent another $2 billion in the following two years. It spawned dozens of programs, among them the Job Corps, whose purpose was to help disadvantaged youth develop marketable skills; the Neighborhood Youth Corps, established to give poor urban youths work experience and to encourage them to stay in school; Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), a domestic version of the Peace Corps, which placed concerned citizens with community-based agencies to work towards empowerment of the poor; the Model Cities Program for urban redevelopment; Upward Bound, which assisted poor high school students entering college; legal services for the poor; the Food Stamps program; the Community Action Program, which initiated local Community Action Agencies charged with helping the poor become self-sufficient; and Project Head Start, which offered preschool education for poor children.
ALL OF these programs were paid for by taxes. ECONOMICS 101: To get tax money for some "Program", someone has to PAY taxes.
Again, taking from those who earn or invest, and giving to those who do not.
MY POINT:
It started in 1929. Then you could have dignity and self-respect, and the positive regard of your community only if "You earned your own way"
Gradually, like the story of a frog who gets cooked by being put into cold water, then heat gradually increased, we have transitioned to the belief that we are "Owed". Life now owes us a home, food, medical care, an education, a car, tickets to rock concerts, color TV's, and trips to Disneyland.
There is no guilt for taking these hand-outs.
My remedy: Let's start "Guilting" people who are capable of working--but don't.
I was thinking this morning while eating breakfast of the number of people I know who have dependent children. Many left home after college (if they even finished) then came back when they couldn't make it on their own; others never left. Most of these children were raised in a home that never allowed them to bump their heads and otherwise suffer from their mistakes. The parents were always there, especially the mothers, to make certain their little darlings never suffered a bruise or even a disappointment. Most of these children were never really challenged by society or their parents because things were "too hard out there", and so easy at home with their parents.
ReplyDeleteSo now, when the parents are old many of these "little darlings" are waiting on the sidelines (many living at home) for the aged parents to die so they can inherit their estates. I have read of several instances here in Florida where the little darlings murdered their parents to speed up the process.
Now, compare these parents to the democrats in America who have cultivated a dependent class. We have spent trillions of dollars trying to help them only to continue hearing their complaints of DISCRIMINATION. Our emergency rooms are over-run with illegals because the democrats passed laws that prevent ANYONE from being turned away--all this was started in order to help our dependent class who would rather make babies and sit on the front porch than work and provide for themselves.
The answer to the obvious question, SO WHAT?, is just this: If you do too much for people you cause great harm, harm to them and society because you destroy the incentive/ambition that makes for better cultures and for better countries.
So now, after over half a century of democratic programs to "to help the downtrodden" they are STILL poor and the country finds itself with an almost totally dismantled manufacturing base with even the auto manufacturers in serious trouble, an education system in shambles, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in serious trouble due to poor management, our social security trust fund broke and our healthcare program in serious trouble due to poor management.
And some of the idiots I know are still saying, "Give The President a chance!"