Not knowing where your next meal is going to come from is a sobering realization that something is wrong. So, as many Americans these days do, one will go online and apply for food stamp benefits. And unlike many "conservatives", I see nothing wrong with this. A hard working family who falls on hard times, and has been a productive member of society, has paid taxes, has some right to the "general welfare fund" they have paid into. But as we all know, it is not only those who "fall on hard times" that use these benefits. The system is ravaged with the typical welfare family, who is consistently poor, receives numerous welfare subsidies, and do nothing to improve their station in life. These are the people who are a drain on this society. Not the mother whose husband upped and left her high and dry with a few mouths to feed and no way to feed them. Nor the parents who got laid off from their jobs because the economy tanked. And certainly not those who through physical or mental disabilities are unable to care or provide for themselves.
But the mentality of today that you are entitled to food, entitled to medical care, entitled to home ownership, entitled to a college education, is foolish at best. Nowhere in nature does an unproductive member of any hive, herd, pride or flock get to sit back and have others feed them or defend them. The queen bee, who is waited on hand and foot, is the sole reason for the hive in the first place. She produces value, the eggs she lays are the product she is paid for. The lion is paid with fresh kills for his role as the pride's protector, and they need his, well, DNA to propagate the pride and species.But we human animals have negated this, and state that we defy nature, and each man woman and child born in this world is entitled to everything, regardless of their ability to produce it, or anything for themselves.
It is my notion that the very thing that was meant to help those in need, those who by no fault of their own, these programs have been abused and have actually contributed to the crisis we have today. I can't count how many times I have heard, why get a job, we have food stamps. Why get health insurance, we have medicaid. Why not have a baby, medicaid will pay the bills, WIC will provide formula, food stamps will feed us, Section 8 funding will put a roof over our heads, cash assistance will buy diapers and keep the lights on, and I'll figure out someway to claim disability to get my government check each month. So for those with no sense of self reliance, no force making them provide for themselves, why on earth would they?
How do I know this? Because I have seen it first hand. I have sat in the WIC office listening to the angry mothers that WIC didn't provide more formula for their babies, that it didn't provide more cereal, more fruit, more juice. They would yell at the case workers, saying "How do you expect me to feed my baby on 11 cans of formula a month. It ain't enough" or " What right do you have to tell me what kind of juice I use my WIC check for, it's my bay, not yours" I chuckled hearing that one, and the thought of beggars can't be choosers ran through my mind. Or when I was sitting at a Career Central employment center (a state run employment office primarily for workers on unemployment) listening to a few guys standing outside smoking, saying how they "won't get out of bed for less than ten dollars an hour", or that "they expect me to come here once a week to try to find a job just so I can get my unemployment check....it's bullshit" Then there's the time we were sitting at the county Health Department, watching and listening to the people get angry at the workers because they couldn't get this test or that procedure done, and how dare they not provide these services to them. That it's their right to have their pap smear done, or their teeth looked at, or their STD treated, and that it's the governments job to take care of it. Im not kidding.
And there I was, sitting in those places, unaware of the welfare culture. Of the lowest of the low, the rotten people who literally mooch their way through life. Who won't get a job because it's easier to work the system to get stuff for free. Who think that it's societies responsibility to look after them. That they don't have to put one ounce of effort into their lives, because it's their right to have food, clothing, medical care, shelter, and money. And here I was, suddenly thrust into this world after losing both incomes, after literally destroying my lower back to take care of my family, paying ungodly amounts in taxes, and trying my hardest to never rely on these programs to which now I was relying.
I listen to people condemn welfare programs, condemn those who are on them. I don't and I never have. And I never will. What I will condemn is those who abuse it. Those who make no plan or action to improve themselves, their lives, and their children's lives. Not those who have fallen on hard times, and were productive members of society before they got laid off, truly disabled, etc.
It is those people who will find jobs again, and rebuild there lives , becoming self reliant once more. But when your parents have relied on welfare, and you rely on welfare, and neither has made a move to improve their lives, what reason do those people have to start being self reliant? They don't, and they rarely won't. They will raise their children that it's okay to be on welfare. That it's their right to have food when they don't at least even try to put it on the table. That it's their right to have kids when they won't even attempt to do the things necessary to provide for them. Welfare used to be a family's dirty little secret. No one wanted anybody else to know they were getting food stamps. Now, it's the in thing. It's their right to get food stamps, because they are an American Citizen. That it's okay to sit back and collect and make no effort in your own care, yet be taken care of. Because it's your right.
Now you may think that all this is meaningless. But I assure you it makes all the difference in the world for our future generations. If you teach by words or example that it's okay to not work for your own survival, then the children that result will usually be less inclined to work hard, to look after one's self. That it is their right to eat, have shelter, to have their runny noses looked at, but that they needn't bother with a job, because it's their government given right to those things. When one child is taught that, its a shame. When 10,000 are taught that, it is a tragedy. When an entire generation is taught that, it's a catastrophe. An entire generation of children taught that it's their right to healthcare, food, and shelter.... not a privilege earned through work and productivity. You then have an entire generation of people who don't create the next big thing, who take the easy way out, who stand for nothing but fall for anything.
It is morally wrong to sit back and collect a check just because of who you are. It is not the American way. What if George Westinghouse or Thomas Edison sat back and just waited for a check, or if Henry ford just decided that hard work and innovation was just too darn hard?
