The Cancer of Entitlements

You people on the right, you complain about big government.  You complain about entitlements.  But, I don't see you turning down Medicare payments.  I don't see you turning down your Social Security payments.  I don't see you turning down your deductions for mortgage payments.  I don't see right-leaning Congress people failing to try to extract from the federal coffers all they can manage to get for their constituents.  In short, you're all hypocrites.

It does look that way, doesn't it?  But, rather than label it hypocrisy,  I'd label it a common disease.  I'd label it a kind of leprosy or a kind of cancer.  Identifying the disease doesn't save you from it.  But, it might get you to begin looking for a cure.

Let's examine a the pathology of entitlements a bit more closely.  The Fed pulls in all this tax money.  Where does it go?  Some to the military, some to social security, some for the delivery of health care, some to fund our various programs,  (food stamps, the UN, etc.) and to pay for the services of our bureaucrats.  But some is ear marked for return to our various states.

So the question to ask is why do we seek to have our states competing with other states for ear marks; e.g., bridges-to-nowhere?  It's because our citizens work as hard as the citizens of any other state.  And, that being the case, why shouldn't our state try as hard as any other state to get some of its money back.  It came from here, so why shouldn't some of it come back here.

The same goes for tax deductions for mortgage payments and a myriad of other deductions.  Sure, people who rent apartments don't get an equivalent deal from the government, but what would I gain by refusing a deduction that everyone who's got a mortgage enjoys.  Sure, I get on average of $2 for every $1 dollar I pay into Medicare and by the same token I get, on average, more out of social security than I paid in.  But, how do I, or anyone else, gain by me turning down my entitlements?  Does my refusal to do so make me a hypocrite?

Okay, if everyone does it, what's the harm?  Why rail against the system?  Because it's just a matter of time before this system kills us.   It's just like deluding ourselves into thinking we can fly.  Jump off a tall building, flap your arms, and you'll be fine .... until you hit the ground.  Pointing this out to our fellow citizens doesn't make us hypocrites.  Accepting entitlements extended to every one else simply shows that we've got the same disease as everyone else.

The cure lies in (1) bringing down what we spend to the point where it matches, or comes in below, what we bring in, (2) doing with fairness what needs to be done as regards all citizens, and (3) making temporary all laws designed to correct cultural differences.

Number one needs no explaining.

Number two means being sure that when we give out exemptions, they not favor one group over another i.e. home owners over renters, stock traders over wage earners, non-productive land owners over true working farmers, etc.

Number three means that when we seek to help a group of people who, in the course of American  history, have been socially disadvantaged, we don't make our efforts an entitlement without end.  If we are going to advantage designated minority groups, let's be sure that we not include in such groups recent immigrants from third world countries, or the children of parents who have successfully risen on the economic ladder and are neither needy nor deserving of special entitlements simply because of membership in such designated groups.  To do otherwise, would most certainly be unfair.

A number of countries in Europe have failed to institute programs consistent with the guidelines outlined above.  That has resulted in high unemployment and riots in the street.  It's not the path we want our country to follow.