Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, I learned early on how to work.
I had a paper route for several years, riding my bike six or seven miles six days a week for $7 or $8. When in Boy Scouts, I, like the other Scouts, sold light bulbs, popcorn and first aid kits door to door, and our Troop mowed a cemetary so that we could raise enough money to attend the week-long summer camp. The motivation was pretty simple: Those who didn't work to raise the funds didn't attend summer camp. On Saturday mornings, while other children were watching cartoons, I worked with my father clearing brush from an eight-acre briar patch we turned into a farm on which we raised a few cattle.
Today, when I drive down to the four-way stop in my community on almost any given Saturday, I see a group of children and their parents standing at the intersection with their hands out. From soccer teams to cheerleading squads, they all have signs asking for the community to support their activities. Perhaps some will think I'm a grumpy old man, but I never give anything to these children being trained to be beggers. However, I will often stop at a car wash to support young people working to support their organization.
Oh, how things have changed in America. A country that once encouraged work and made one embarrassed when one didn't now appears to be doing exactly the opposite. Even from the leader of our country, our President, Barack Obama, we're receiving messaging that seems to downplay the role the role of personal responsibility such as hard work in the determination of one's success.
"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."
Some will argue that the President was talking about roads and bridges when he said "you didn't build that," but they are missing the most important point entirely. Instead of praising those who are successful for their hard work, intelligence and courage to start a business, the President downplays the role that those individual atrtributes played in their success, focusing instead on the "help" they received from government along the way and essentially providing excuses for those who aren't successful.
I recently led an activity for our company. I asked the employees to name the reasons why we were so successful during an economy that, generously, could be called bad. Interestly, not one employee cited "help from the government" as a reason for our success.
Maybe I am a grumpy old man, but I remember fondly when asking the government for help wasn't something that Americans wanted to do and it certainly wasn't encouraged. There was a stigma attached to receiving government help, and this was ingrained in our psyches. Someone receiving help was expected to do everything they could to accept this help for as short of a time as was necessary to turn their lives around.
Remember when the government-issued food stamps program actually issued "food stamps?" Well, today, those benefits are provided via a debit card so that those who receive them aren't embarrassed by handing the well-recognized food stamps to the cashier. To exacerbate the situation, the Obama Administration spent $3 million this year on advertising to encourage more people to apply for foodstamps and to make the program more socially acceptable. The budget for food stamps has more than doubled under this President, and he wants more people to sign up?
Remember when those on unemployment actually had to verify that they were looking for a job, providing the names of those companies and organizations contacted? Well, you don't have to do this anymore, as this would require someone to actually prove that they are looking for a job. I'm sure this stringent requirement was changed because some government bureaucrat thought it was demeaning for someone to actually look for a job while on unemployment.
Remember the highly-successful welfare reform instituted by President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress? The centerpiece of this program was that people actually had to transition to work. Millions moved from welfare to work under this program, which was one of the most successful government programs in the history of our country. Well, the Obama Administration recently gutted the requirements for this program, giving states the ability to replace work for such strenuous activities as participating in weight control programs or reading.
Sadly, if America doesn't reverse its course soon, we will soon be a nation with the majority of people not working. As the ranks of those on government programs grow ever larger and those who work become smaller, the few who continue to work will have to pay ever higher taxes in order to pay for the growing number who have come to expect their free, government check. This isn't sustainable. Although this dynamic creates more and more Americans prone to vote for Democrats, it will soon bankrupt our once great country and result in a standard of living for all Americans moving us closer to becoming a poor, third world country.
The Presidential Election in 2012 may be the most important decision point in our nation's history. November can't come soon enough.
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