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Entitlement programs lead U.S. on dangerous path
Dwight Wozich
Issue date: 5/8/09 Section: Forum
Entitlement programs lead U.S. on dangerous path
Liberal entitlement programs are the equivalent of loaning money to a problem gambler. Problem gamblers convince people to lend them money out of sympathy, and they always try and ensure their benefactor that they will hit a streak of good luck and be able to pay off the loan.
What often occurs instead is that the problem gambler cannot escape their addiction to the adrenaline-like rush of playing with money, and they end up losing all their new funds to risky bets.
Left-wing support for entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and public housing exists on a parallel level of fallacy.
The ideas that serve as a basis for these programs are fundamentally progressive.
For example, Medicare and Social Security are designed as a medical and financial security blanket for individuals that are no longer able to provide for themselves because of advanced age or a permanent medical condition.
Medicaid is intended to take care of low-income individuals and families who can't afford health care.
Welfare and public housing are supposed to give a leg-up to poor people whose economic and social status prevented them from improving their lot in life.
Essentially, all these programs assume that people are entitled to basic rights and necessities, and that it will ultimately be beneficial to society if we band together through the redistribution of wealth and resources to ensure that everyone is happy and taken care of. This is a philosophy that looks good on paper and attracts a lot of support from generous citizens who are sympathetic to the plight of the less fortunate.
However, liberal politicians are addicted to a belief that the federal government is an effective vessel for administering to the needs of the people. Time and again they have abused the sympathies of socially conscious Americans to create massive tax payer-funded social programs that are ultimately rendered irrelevant by the inefficiency of American bureaucracy.
Liberal entitlement programs are the equivalent of loaning money to a problem gambler. Problem gamblers convince people to lend them money out of sympathy, and they always try and ensure their benefactor that they will hit a streak of good luck and be able to pay off the loan.
What often occurs instead is that the problem gambler cannot escape their addiction to the adrenaline-like rush of playing with money, and they end up losing all their new funds to risky bets.
Left-wing support for entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and public housing exists on a parallel level of fallacy.
The ideas that serve as a basis for these programs are fundamentally progressive.
For example, Medicare and Social Security are designed as a medical and financial security blanket for individuals that are no longer able to provide for themselves because of advanced age or a permanent medical condition.
Medicaid is intended to take care of low-income individuals and families who can't afford health care.
Welfare and public housing are supposed to give a leg-up to poor people whose economic and social status prevented them from improving their lot in life.
Essentially, all these programs assume that people are entitled to basic rights and necessities, and that it will ultimately be beneficial to society if we band together through the redistribution of wealth and resources to ensure that everyone is happy and taken care of. This is a philosophy that looks good on paper and attracts a lot of support from generous citizens who are sympathetic to the plight of the less fortunate.
However, liberal politicians are addicted to a belief that the federal government is an effective vessel for administering to the needs of the people. Time and again they have abused the sympathies of socially conscious Americans to create massive tax payer-funded social programs that are ultimately rendered irrelevant by the inefficiency of American bureaucracy.
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Ira Goldstein
posted 6/24/09 @ 8:53 AM PST
People should work hard for everything they have and not rely on the government just to exist.
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