It has been far too long since I have penned my thoughts on this once-great nation. This being said, there is one subject that has been constantly occupying my thoughts. The welfare system of the United States of America is, well to put it bluntly: idiotic. It is just another tax-sucking way that our government has found to coddle its population.
There was a time, my fellow patriots, when Americans had dignity, and not this self-serving sense of entitlement. If a U.S. Citizen was down and out, he or she would work hard to pull themselves up, and if asking for money was absolutely necessary, he or she would ask his or her family for help. Now, I am told that the reason this is not a practice today is because “it’s humiliating.” What? So as a person on welfare, you would rather be a burden to the millions of hardworking taxpayers than to your family who knows and loves you? That’s cowardice. All the government is doing is building a faceless system so people feel better about taking money that isn’t theirs. Call me a cretin, but I think you are supposed to feel bad when you take money that isn’t yours. That’s how it works. That is your good work ethic saying “Don’t freeload!”
Now, I understand that not everyone has a wealthy relative to ask for money. I don’t believe the welfare system should be abolished, I just believe that it should be radically revolutionized, but then again, I am a person who thinks that government should be run like a business and not a babysitting service. I believe that if someone is in need of welfare, then they can have it until they are back on their feet, but as soon as they are, they have to pay all that money back. I am convinced that this practice alone would eliminate about 80% of the people on welfare. If you don’t pay the money back, you go to jail (This makes sense, since not returning money that you borrowed is stealing.). If the government makes being on welfare uncomfortable, people aren’t going to want to stay there like bloated pigs getting iphones and manicures and demanding cable T.V.
I don’t think that you should have everything a middle class family has when you are on welfare. The idea that everyone is entitled to have cable T.V. whether they work for it or not is a very communist idea and it is unfair to the people who worked hard so that they could have cable T.V. If you are on welfare, you shouldn’t have a new house, a cell phone, a fancy manicure, or a new car. You are not entitled to those things, they are the things one earns from working hard. On the other hand, I don’t think that the government should regulate what welfare money is being spent on. As I said before, if people had to pay the money back, they would make things like food and shelter priorities over iphones and Prada bags.
If the welfare system I have proposed were put into action, families would become more humble and develop closer relationships with one another. Families need to depend on one another. It is part of what makes a family so strong. The problem now is that a lot of families are too aloof to help one another. Without the government as a crutch, this would be a smaller issue. Also, there would be a greater sense of community; people would go to churches or public charities if they needed help, not to a suited beaurocracy run by tax-hungry pompous morons. Lastly, taxes would significantly decrease, stimulating the economy and lessening the burden on the middle class families.
Maybe I should end this with “Hope” and “Change” so the idiots will listen too.
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Friday, August 5, 2011
Sunday, July 4, 2010
On Being Free
As today is July fourth, I found it appropriate to honor the tradition of celebrating American independence by examining what exactly it means to be free.
Definition of Freedom: 1)the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint. 2)exemption from external control 3)the power to determine action without restraint 4)political or national independence...13)the right to frequent, use, or enjoy at will.
(Webster's College Dictionary. Random House. New York. Copyright 2001)
I suppose this pondering about being free began with a conversation with a Lebanese exchange student. I asked him how he liked America so far, and his answer surprised me. He said "Eh, is okay, but I come from a country where we are free. Here you are not free." This jarred me, because I had always thought that we were a free country.
Are we free? Well, we certainly started out so. As a young country, America had a stable, but small government, and every American citizen was entitled to certain rights. I think the most important ideal that helped shape this country was that every man was equal. By this I mean that every citizen of the United States of America had equal opportunity to pursue his own happiness. Whether this was found in starting a business or participating in politics, each person had the equal opportunity to do so by law. The government simply served as a guide in the least oppressing sense. The government was simply there to protect the rights of its people.
We may still have the rights that we did as a young country on paper, but the power of those rights is dwindling as the freedom to act upon said rights is drowned out by certain restraints of the law. More and more we are oppressed by laws that are seemingly put in place to protect us from ourselves. The intent may be good, but what are we really accomplishing by setting these laws into motion? When a government becomes powerful enough to reach into every aspect of the lives of its citizens, then its power begins to whittle away at the freedom of the people.
My example: Seatbelt and helmet laws. I realize that it is important to be safe while operating fast-moving or heavy equipment, but I still think that it should be up to the individual whether he or she wishes to practice safety. These laws are meant to protect us from ourselves, but what they are doing is taking away our ability to think and act of our own free will. Common sense is a lot less common than it used to be. When the government thinks for us, we lose the ability to think for ourselves. If one chooses not to wear a seatbelt or a helmet, one is also choosing to accept the consequences should he or she crash.
By saying this, I am not advocating all abandonment of safety. In fact, when laws involve the safety of others, I am willing to consider them, but I do not think that it is the government's job to protect me from myself. That is no one's job but mine.
Nor am I saying that it is not practical for a company to require hard-hats for its workers if conditions call for it. But, that is up to the company to create such a policy, and not up to the government. And, if said company has no such policy in place and a worker feels endangered, he or she is FREE to wear equipment that will ensure his or her safety.
I know this is a small issue (helmets and seatbelts), but I think its political status right now illustrates the dwindling freedom of the citizens of this country. It mirrors the larger issues that are threatening our freedom as Americans, such as the new healthcare bill. By socializing medicine, we will no longer be able to choose our own health insurance or our own doctors. That is not freedom.
So I have come to the conclusion that we are not a free country anymore. Yes, our rights (for the time being) are still in place, but they are slowly being overwritten by the government's need to "take care" of everyone.
This made me realize why for the past few years I have felt hollow on Independence Day. We are regressing and becoming the very thing we worked so hard to escape in the American Revolution. Now, I invite all you true patriots to celebrate hope. Hope that one day, we will take back the freedoms that we have lost. Let it fill your hearts this Independence Day and let Freedom ring!
Definition of Freedom: 1)the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint. 2)exemption from external control 3)the power to determine action without restraint 4)political or national independence...13)the right to frequent, use, or enjoy at will.
(Webster's College Dictionary. Random House. New York. Copyright 2001)
I suppose this pondering about being free began with a conversation with a Lebanese exchange student. I asked him how he liked America so far, and his answer surprised me. He said "Eh, is okay, but I come from a country where we are free. Here you are not free." This jarred me, because I had always thought that we were a free country.
Are we free? Well, we certainly started out so. As a young country, America had a stable, but small government, and every American citizen was entitled to certain rights. I think the most important ideal that helped shape this country was that every man was equal. By this I mean that every citizen of the United States of America had equal opportunity to pursue his own happiness. Whether this was found in starting a business or participating in politics, each person had the equal opportunity to do so by law. The government simply served as a guide in the least oppressing sense. The government was simply there to protect the rights of its people.
We may still have the rights that we did as a young country on paper, but the power of those rights is dwindling as the freedom to act upon said rights is drowned out by certain restraints of the law. More and more we are oppressed by laws that are seemingly put in place to protect us from ourselves. The intent may be good, but what are we really accomplishing by setting these laws into motion? When a government becomes powerful enough to reach into every aspect of the lives of its citizens, then its power begins to whittle away at the freedom of the people.
My example: Seatbelt and helmet laws. I realize that it is important to be safe while operating fast-moving or heavy equipment, but I still think that it should be up to the individual whether he or she wishes to practice safety. These laws are meant to protect us from ourselves, but what they are doing is taking away our ability to think and act of our own free will. Common sense is a lot less common than it used to be. When the government thinks for us, we lose the ability to think for ourselves. If one chooses not to wear a seatbelt or a helmet, one is also choosing to accept the consequences should he or she crash.
By saying this, I am not advocating all abandonment of safety. In fact, when laws involve the safety of others, I am willing to consider them, but I do not think that it is the government's job to protect me from myself. That is no one's job but mine.
Nor am I saying that it is not practical for a company to require hard-hats for its workers if conditions call for it. But, that is up to the company to create such a policy, and not up to the government. And, if said company has no such policy in place and a worker feels endangered, he or she is FREE to wear equipment that will ensure his or her safety.
I know this is a small issue (helmets and seatbelts), but I think its political status right now illustrates the dwindling freedom of the citizens of this country. It mirrors the larger issues that are threatening our freedom as Americans, such as the new healthcare bill. By socializing medicine, we will no longer be able to choose our own health insurance or our own doctors. That is not freedom.
So I have come to the conclusion that we are not a free country anymore. Yes, our rights (for the time being) are still in place, but they are slowly being overwritten by the government's need to "take care" of everyone.
This made me realize why for the past few years I have felt hollow on Independence Day. We are regressing and becoming the very thing we worked so hard to escape in the American Revolution. Now, I invite all you true patriots to celebrate hope. Hope that one day, we will take back the freedoms that we have lost. Let it fill your hearts this Independence Day and let Freedom ring!
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