Independence Day

Today's world is so full of convenience, entitlement and luxury that, as far as history is concerned, people have become soft. I have heard of remote villages where they live on dirt floors and go bare-footed, but they still have a television. This, I think, represents the insanity of our day, when you can have the most extreme poverty beside ridiculous luxury, all in the same household! But why should life be that way? Have the luxuries of life become necessities in our eyes? Could we more easily go without food than without satellite TV?

Some years ago, I sat in a public health office waiting for an appointment. I overheard a discussion between a social worker and one of her clients. They were arguing over the amount of food stamps the family would receive during the month. The man was pleading for a little bit more than the allotted amount because he said that his family needed the extra money they would save in order to pay for their cable TV. He said that they simply couldn't go without it. After I finished chuckling to myself, I sat pondering on the man's dilemma. Here he was, a poor man, obviously without a job, begging for government food, just trying to get by day to day, with the help of people being paid to decide what he was entitled to. I wondered what choices he had. I wondered if the only thing left in his life was to beg for enough money to have enough entertainment so that he could sit all day 'watching' other people live.

With the growing numbers of people dependent upon government support, this seems an increasingly important issue. I mean, unless these numbers are staying the same or decreasing, we will eventually find ourselves in the position where there are more people asking for money than people able to give it. Then, like an upside-down mortgage, we will be in an irreversible mess. But for now we just have a lot of people who are being shelved, as it were, living in relative comfort, ease and security, without contributing anything to their own support. How can we even begin to count the cost of the loss of dignity, self-respect, responsibility, accountability and productivity?

Now, we are told, everyone has a 'right' to health care. Add that to the list of entitlements and you have an ever-growing burden being placed upon working people whose motivation for working is becoming increasingly difficult to muster. Like the cartoon that shows a man out of work on a park bench saying how glad he is that he can still have health care even though he is out of work. The other man on the bench then asks him why he has lost his job. The other man says that the company he worked for had to lay him off in order to provide the new health care for everyone.

The irony of this situation is not a joke. This is the reality of our time. We are living in the age of the upside-down economy; when people have been led to believe that they have a 'right' to have whatever they want or need. Thus far, in this country at least, this belief has prospered. Those who feel entitled to food, clothing, shelter, health care, entertainment, education etc. have been able to find a government willing and able to force the rest of the population to provide that 'right'. But, as I said before, when the tipping point is reached and there are more on the receiving end than on the other, we will see a different picture. Perhaps then, people will declare their independence from such bondage.

No one wants to live his life being forced to provide for others who cannot, will not, or who for generations past, simply have not worked. Forced charity is not charity at all. To willingly give of one's substance to those who need it is a virtue. -- This is the way of freedom. To take support without giving something of equal value in return is a crime.--This is the order of the day. To be forced, year after year, to support by your labor those who do not work is slavery.-- This takes the cake.