The Ugliness of Government Dependence
Since ascending to the presidency in January 2009, Obama has spent much of his time tearing down this country instead of building it up. His hope and change, now fleshed out in health care reform, the stimulus package, and legislation aimed at giving the feds more control over Wall Street, has proven as hopeless as it has intrusive. Even honest Democrats are starting to see that Obama’s change was for the worse.
Because of these things, many Americans feel what Fouad Ajami describes as an “embarrassment that a political majority, if only for a moment, fell for the promise of an untested redeemer [in 2008].” But while there is embarrassment on the part of some, there are a number of people who still shamelessly clamor for Obama’s handouts and display, in the process, the ugliest aspects of government dependence.
For instance, when news broke during the first week of August that food stamp usage had hit its highest level in U.S. history, a picture proliferated with the story in which a woman in the food stamp line was talking on her smart phone. And there was a similar picture during the spring of 2009, when Michelle Obama was working a soup line and people in the soup line were using their smart phones to take pictures of Mrs. Obama serving them.
How can people who are so supposedly so financially stricken that they can’t afford food find the money to buy smart phones?
The nasty little secret is that in some states, government dependence enables you to get a free cell phone with 200 free minutes a month too. That’s right: in Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee, and Virginia, if you are food stamp dependent you can get a cell phone for free. This awkward (and obvious) confusion of needs and wants only highlights the ugliness of government dependence.
History repeating itself;
In the roaring 20′s banks were loaning money to citizens to invest in the stock markets, purchase Real estate, and generally live above their actual means. However the real danger was banks loaning to their own subsidiaries and investing the money for higher returns. The money being loaned did not truly belong to the bank, but the banks saw fit to use these funds and subsidize their own investment and securities branches.
The depression hit as a reaction to the fast and loose credit markets, bad government policy increased hardship, and we have all seen the pics of soup kitchens and bread lines.
As a result of the corruption in the banking system, in 1934 Congress passed the Glass-Stegal Act that prohibited Banks from loaning investor funds to themselves and investing these accounts, or from co mingling funds, or from owning investment banks in an incestuous manner.
From 1934 until 1999 all was relatively well in the Bank system. (The savings and Loan debacle in the 80s should have served as warning) Then congress and President Clinton rescinded Glass Stegal and allowed banks to again maintain incestuous relationships with subsidiaries; from this sprang bundled securities, mortgage bundling and trading Debt as investment vehicle.
It only took 7 years for the banking system to again unravel. And we sit at the edge of another depression and reliance on ineffective and corrupt Government programs.
There is one item that will begin to get noticed, the MERS system that allowed mortgage bundling and trading by banks has been ruled as breaking transfer of Title. This means anyone with mortgage held in MERS may not be required to continue paying Mortgage holder, as they do not legally own the Mortgage.
There are over 60 Million Mortgages in the MERS system.
We are deep into the panem et circenses phase of our national dissolution. Rome couldn’t reverse course from there; indeed, when it fell to the Visigoths and Vandals, there were 220 legal holidays in the Roman calendar, on each of which there was a government distribution of free food and drink, plus government-financed games in the Coliseum.
We might not have the holidays in such profusion — well, unless you’re a government worker — but we have the “bread,” and our peripatetic, maximally villainous ruling class provides the circuses each and every day, delivered gratis courtesy of the Legacy Media.
People, do not deceive yourselves that this is the consequence of foolishness or lack of comprehension. Villains hold the tiller of the Ship of State. They’re aiming for the rocks. And they must be stopped.
Granted, the Romans didn’t have weekends, but even so, they were working fewer days than public school teachers.
You’re right — it’s ugly. I once sold some old computer equipment to a married couple whom I got to know slightly before I had to take a shower and forget about them. The woman was my first example of a “sloven” — until I ran into her and saw her house, “sloven” had only been a word for me. Her husband was collecting unemployment and fully intended to enjoy his full six months of “vacation.” Said he, “It’s kind of nice, sitting around the house and writing letters to friends.” Do I have to add that they expected me to maintain and repair their computer, for free?
Yuk! These people are living in the land of the free & the home of the brave?!
the victimhood mentality of the USA.
every new victim is another vote for the marxist inspired progressives that control congress the white house and the senate.
they have a long head start. they teach this (victimhood and not taking responsibility) in the public schools …it will be hard to over come. There are several lost generations of brainwashed dupes out there.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government powerful enough to take from you everything you have.
Are the cell phones going to people who can’t scrape up the cash for a land line? If that’s the case, I wouldn’t bitch too much about it—I’m all for a potential employer to be able to reach them.
I agree with giving them a basic cell phone, for employers or for emergency calls… but a smartphone seems excessive. I have a very basic smartphone (Palm Centro) and it was a good deal more expensive than a basic phone, and the monthly service is more expensive as well.
Now, I am employed, so I can afford it, and I had my eyes open when I got it… but I sure as heck don’t wanna be paying for the bills of people who really don’t need the added smartphone features.
they should not get cell phone …taxpayers should not foot the bill. many of those taxpayers do not have cell phones.
that people accept this is part of the problem.
I figured someone would say this. It’s a beautiful illustration of why problems like this aren’t self-correcting. Someone else might ask, “But why 200 minutes? Why not 50 or 100?” Those exercises in pragmatic baby-splitting never beat back the growth of systemic dependency.
Once you’ve agreed that the taxpayer ought to fund entitlements at all, every objection to the size or purpose of the benefit becomes impolitic cruelty or hard-heartedness. You can’t run a welfare state on sound business or accounting principles.
It’s possible to provide public charity, if it’s not open-ended and if it’s administered locally. But public ENTITLEMENTS can’t be managed pragmatically. They are a moral hazard the size of Mount Everest, and they quickly come to own a polity.
J. E.
I take a back seat to few in my conservatism… I was one of the original Reagan conservatives, having been able to vote for his second term (which also gives ya an idea how old I am).
I, personally, have no objection to a safety net, and I really don’t see why a basic–stress basic–cell phone shouldn’t be a part of it, given that, as stated above, prospective employers need a way to get in touch with applicants, not to mention in case of emergency (pay phones aren’t nearly as common as they were when I was a kid).
I don’t think they need smartphones, as I stated above. If access to the web or email is needed for a legitimate purpose such as job seeking, most libraries these days offer internet access, and if not, then government can provide it at, say, the employment office (I’ve seen that in the past myself).
I’d also have no objection to making the cell phone contingent on actually looking for work… if someone is determined to be unemployable (for whatever reason) or is just too friggin’ lazy to look for work, then no cell phone for them.
To put it in a nutshell, a basic cell phone could be part of a modern safety net. A smartphone seems far too much like turning the safety net into a hammock, and that I adamantly oppose.
Science is the study of how to utilize natural law. Engineering is the application of those laws to our benefit but politics is concerned with the welfare of the politician. Natural law is no hindrance because it is easily trumped with statute law….
After my stint in WW II I finally settled on the GI farm school. I was paid $90 a month and we met once a week in the evening. Trouble was I already knew about practically everything they were teaching and sometimes more. The USDA was in charge and we had a number of cost sharing practices for which there was a government appropriation. This was in the green or environmental realm for which our environmentalist get so much credit for their concern. It is shutting down our access to oil and coal while wasting money on wind and wave. I can’t remember all the details. I am not sure just how much time I spent in that system but we came to the end of a fiscal year and the County Agent, USDA and AAA or PMA, what ever the program was called in that phase of the moon, they still had appropriations that had to be spent by the close of the fiscal year with little time to do it. The expected demand had not materialized and they were getting desperate. Anything, just anything that could pass on paper, please, please, sign up so we can show an empty till. A little research should show this as standard operating procedure. A real ratchet to keep jacking up demand.
They even use advertising.
Not being well learned in the finer points of corruption I innocently suggested that we just move the unspent money into the next year. Reasonable, I thought, but I had overlooked a very significant political truth. They, whom I took to be the authorities, had lobbied furiously for a 15% raise in appropriation due to the intense need for those funds and now to have a significant portion left from last appropriation was just too embarrassing. I resigned on the spot but have not been able to dodge all of our government’s love for my entitlements.
This is the built in ratchet for our welfare entitlements. It justifies the existence for all the handouts that keep the administrators with a fat paycheck. So, yes, it is the bureaucratic hide that is being best served by this system. In the meantime it is taking capital out of the hands of producers preventing them from providing those smart phones and other things we so enjoy. The worst thing that can happen in the Socialists eyes if for a business to make a comfortable profit and even get rich.
The best cure for the young is a good paying job. They begin to pity their friends who have to keep scamming social services to keep the rent paid.
People who helped during Katrina and then the floods of Iowa and Nashville noted quite a difference in the attitudes and abilities of the utterly dependent New Orleans underclass. These people are not a force for the status quo nanny state, they are powerless. It’s the ruling class of government, media, and academia we have to defeat. It’s becoming more clear all the time that the Tea Party is the mainstream and the elites are the out to lunch fringe.
Gary Ogletree, you’re correct about the Katrina refugees. They are passive people. If a hurricane threatens their city, they wait to be evacuated. When they don’t get evacuated, they wait to be rescued. When they don’t get rescued, they wait for FEMA relief. When they get FEMA relief, they want it to continue indefinitely. While arguing for perpetual FEMA relief, they wait for the next hurricane.
I totally agree with the premise of this article:The Ugliness of Government Dependence.
Dick Cheney depended on the Government for most of his life, and his employer Halliburton still depends on those Government contracts. Ross Perot’s billions were amassed by Government contracts, etc. etc.
You are implying that the current regime does not engage in corporate welfare? At least Haliburton had to provide goods and services for the money. The Obamacrats have taken it to a new and shameful level by giving away billions to companies like GM primarily as payback to the UAW for their political support.
The problem is government intrusion into every aspect of our lives and its unlimited appetite for re-distributing people’s money based on ideology and political expediencies. And you can’t defend this by bitching that Dick Cheney was paid a salary or that Ross Perot was able to win lucrative contracts from wasteful and inept government agencies.
Liber T explains it well. The fundamental misunderstanding of socialism-leaning people is that they think the government is the source of goods and services.
The government is the source of NOTHING that it hasn’t taken from the people. Understand that simple sentence, please! Not the government, but the people are the source of all goods and services.
Socialism is a kind of slavery contract in which the government contracts to provide everything for the people. Just ask those in socialist countries what wise and kindly slave owners their governments have proven to be. Also, socialism destroys the work ethic, just as you would expect slavery to do.
Both Dick and Ross had to work in order to get their government money. We are not allowed to ask welfare recipients to work to get their money and goodies; it would be too, too demeaning.
But don’t worry. At the rate we’re going, before long we’ll ALL work for the government. Except the richest 2%, of course; they’ll pay all of us. (Though I’m not sure exactly what they’ll produce or how they’ll produce any quantity of it, what with everyone else working for the government and producing nothing, or, that given, how they’ll get rich. Maybe they’ll all be overpaid movie stars.)
I pay taxes so democrats can buy votes.
Three years ago, I took a step towards retirement by getting a job with the VHA. This became my first exposure to government employment. Wow.
Not only is the government service work ethic in the toilet, but productivity is less than 25% of what is routinely expected in the private sector. There are untold numbers of conflicting policies and procedures. GS 4,5 & 6′s can routinely undo or ignore “orders” issued by GS 10,11, & 12′s–because this is America and everyone is equal. We have patient care advocates who routinely undo doctors orders, because the patient is unhappy with their mean old doctor. But generally, everyone is happy, because happy work environments are… happy. We have lots of special unofficial holidays, we have lots of town meetings, we have lots of pep talks about how we are part of the best health care service in the world. We have lots of mandi posters, surveys and 59er’s. We don’t have time for actual work, but have fun. Don’t worry, we may not have met this years work goals, but we will next year.
But the most remarkable thing of all… We know what is best for you. We really do. We are here to help. Trust us. You need us. And again, don’t worry, there are almost enough of us to go around. With next years budget increase, we can help everybody; there are millions of us… Most of us aren’t exactly fat, but we are all really happy. We are working on our phone skills too.
Thank you for a very well-written post!
This article is totally misleading. Listen, people this is 2010! I’m so sorry to have to give a wake up call but cell phones aren’t just for rich people anymore! In fact many poverty striking people have no other choice but to use cell phones for example to call their kids or caregivers. And as far as the goverment making people less free by giving food stamps and unemployment benefits how free can people be if they are starving to death Id like to know. No one chooses to be poor and out of a job especially if you have children who don’t know where there next meal is coming from. If you think getting food stamps is so easy then try it sometime. It took me seven years before I could collect any benefits at all and I have four kids to support and not even a job so don’t talk about somethings you don’t know, alright!
Sounds like being a welfare leech is hard work.
Congratulations on finally reaching your goal of being a ward of the state, after years of trying.
You must be very proud.
Anyone who has a computer and access to the internet to post about their poverty and four starving children is a leech, never mind the cell phone. Did someone hold you down and rape you repeatedly to produce those four children, or did you figure out all by yourself they would be a ticket to a good life of leisure at the government teat, so now you’re working on producing Starving Child Number Five so you can lecture the rest of us working folks about how much we owe you.
I’m betting you live in DC, Detroit, or New Orleans where it’s an approved lifestyle to drop out of school, have babies and live on welfare. I’m also betting you voted enthuiastically for Obama one or more times in the sure certainty that he was going to pay for your gas and your mortgage.
This is right. All so-called social programs in America are a ruse. They don’t really exist. America is a compassionless society filled with nothing but hate and greed! What must be done is seize the wealth of the greedy billionaires at the top and provide rights to food, housing, health care, and income for all. Nowhere in the world do so many poor children die of starvation and exposure when greedy trust fund billionaires live in mansions and dine on steak and lobster.
Gen P. Malaise – Victimhood/pity/empathy is on FULL display NOW.
Seeing the news for but a moment I see Sharpton and other, ahem ‘Reverends’ playing the empathy card due to Glenn Beck’s shindig simultaneously occurring at the Lincoln Memorial.
Sharpton and co. had a chance to stand up, lead by example and focus on the very reason why those have gathered (I wish to think his intentions are valiant, but…) and ignore ANY distractions for the sake of solidarity, triumph. Instead as EXPECTED he plays the ONLY hand he’s ever played.
When you haven’t ANY reasoning ability or encourage/acceptance of growth (in a myriad of ways) – this is the tactic.
Sharpton and those who listen to this person are mental midgets. The vast majority of our society as a whole has outgrown them and their dated, illogical dogma.
Mika – If you or someone you know is in the unlikelihood of ‘starving to death’ in this society that BREEDS PRIDE in upward mobility – you or like minded travelers are truly hopeless.
Your attempting to get ‘benefits’ FOR 7 YEARS speaks volumes..
It’s very ugly, because abnormal. People have traded their dignity for a check in the mail.
And the “abnormal” part of gov. dependence is the fact that it’s not-natural: it actually goes against our natures. Entire generations of Americans have been duped into trading their humanity for government promises.
Great piece. And to me, watching presidents, congressmen, senators and others defend the idea of government dependence is tragic. It is a betrayal of the very nature of this nation, and the nature of mankind.
Sorry mika, a cell phone is not a necessity. Give me a break. Why not work on educating yourself for seven years instead of working for seven years to get benefits. I was a divorced single mother for 5 years and just did without. I never took a dime from the Fed Govt. My kids are doing great now. Quit waiting for somebody to feed you and supply your needs.
Would love to have a cell phone…choose to feed my children, and pay my bills.
any way that you want to look at it, sooner or later the bill comes due. Free ain’t free and dependence is the devil’s work.
come into the light so we can see who you are!
I don’t have that much a problem with the cell phone – in fact, it may well be that the lady with the cell phone is exactly the sort of person I’d like to see helped with the social safety net. Bear with me a minute. If you get a cell phone, you usually sign a contract that says if you terminate early, you get to pay the phone company a ton of money and get your credit wrecked. A lot of people who had jobs last year, but don’t now, signed those contracts. It is stupid to dump the cell phone when you’re going to be liable for the rest of the contract. Instead, you call the phone company and renegotiate the contract to get the smallest possible bill, and you keep the cell phone instead of your land line so you are available for employers, temp companies, etc.
None of us know what brought that lady to the food stamp line. It’s really not fair to pass judgment without understanding her situation.
I suspect if she is that person, though, she was turned down. The “system” is biased toward helping people who know how to make themselves so pathetic they can’t be turned down. Someone who just needs a hand up for a month or two will get turned down. It stinks.
“None of us know what brought that lady to the food stamp line.”
That’s true.
One thing we do know though, and that’s over 40,000,000 people are in the food stamp program…and, it’s, obviously, not the least bit difficult to get into the program…unless you’re a millionaire or something.
This is nothing unusual. It is common knowledge that state dependents in Germany (here the state apparatus actually calls them “clients”) live better than a sizable portion of the working population. And we know that many of these people will not accept a job until they are forced to. And quite frankly, when they can make more money by not working, then of course it all makes sense. Anyone trying to get benefits for the best part of the decade should have spent at least part of that time trying to get a job. Personally, I have a few suggestions.
1. No benefits at all to someone without a high school degree. Without a high school degree in an advanced country, your career choices are limited. If you have chose to limit those choices by not finishing high school, then you don’t deserve unemployment benefits. Period.
2. Poor in America is not like poor in Africa. Someone can have a car, ipod, computer, and flat screen in the US and still be considered “poor.” There is even a big difference between the people we call poor in the US and those in Europe. Realizing that relative poverty i.e. the poor in the US have far less than their wealthy peers is NOT the same as real poverty i.e. where the poor do have trouble feeding and clothing themselves and providing for their own basic necessities. If someone wants a smartphone instead of buying food, that is a choice they have decided to make. The government should not hand out smart phones. This is common knowledge to those of us that pay taxes.
3. People who accept government aid when they either don’t need it or just don’t want to work are thieves. They steal money from taxpayers (like me) and they steal money from people who are needy. They should be treated like the thieves they are.
“Free people cannot be both free and dependent.”
The ideological screed which followed had nothing to do with the premise.
If you’re going to cut welfare, you’re going to cut Social Security and stop militarizing the civilian police force. You’re going to close any and all overseas military bases. Period. You’re going to cut federal education laws. You’re going to cut or even eliminate property taxes at the state level. You’re going to cut or eliminate federal income taxes of every kind.
There’s a whole list of things that need to be done in order to gain your independence from the feds. Until you address all of them, you cannot make any claim to being free and independent. Picking one issue that you disagree with and demonizing and dehumanizing millions of people is the same tactic that you rightfully find to be so despicable in your political opponents, but it’s perfectly fine when you do it?
That’s insanity.
Ah, try this as scenario.
Provision of goods and chattel to people NOT in need, compelled from others who provide the goods by their labour (taxes) was once upon a time looked at with contempt. There have always been provision in all societies to aid and succour those truly in need.
Accepted as a “right”. it comes at the cost of the contempt of those who assign the goods. Do not for a moment believe the “officials” admire, respect or even care about those they exploit and use.Why would they ? Voluntarily exploited is hardly cause for respect, even by those exploited / used.
The ancestors, of all races, of many who acccept the dole, their DREAM was to be FREE. From those who controlled them through dependency. Through exploitation to their usages, Even to actual ownership of their bodies AND their childrens bodies. To be free from the massas was necessary for their natural dignity and worth. And when it finally happened embraced with tears of joy and shouts of hallelujah. To be FREE from the dependency with the costs for that dependency was THE DREAM of so many. Especially those called slaves. Those on whom they depended called the Massas.. WHAT HAS CHANGED?
Now the slave owners, the massas are called liberals, progressives and democrats, politicians, instead of slave owners. They are still the “Massas”. And those who accept,without having earned or being in actual need, the dole, now called welfare dependents. All exploited by these New Age Massas.
At what costs in their human rights and dignity do these new slaves accept their bondage. Plus ca change…
How Obama Spent (Some) of His Summer Vacation
“V-A-See-A-T-I-O-N, we’re on vacation, we’re gonna have a ball!” (Connie Francis)
It may be antiquated and not “with it” today but a popular back-to-school, first week assignment to get kids back to the grind used to be to have them write about how they spent their summer vacations. Most kids could write at least something on that easy topic.
If little Barry Obama were heading back to classes following summer vacation 2010, he would have a lot to write about. If he included where and how he spent this year’s vacations, to date, he could almost literally write volumes.
Compliments of IOwntheWorld.com, we present this pictorial insight into how our commander-in-chief, our president, our leader and chief bottle-washer, who had vowed, “I will not rest until everyone has a job, a good wage, and benefits,” has been spending his last vacation during this, America’s “recovery summer.”
Suffice to say, Obama, now being termed President Clark Griswold in a few quarters, has never, ever rested on his laurels nor on his vacations. Maybe he simply forgot that pledge to the American people and forgot those many millions of Americans still without a job, still without a good wage, and still without benefits.
Then, however, it would seem he has a surprisingly bad memory for such a smart dude since he’s forgotten any number of pledges and promises.
The pictures depict the president and First Lady thoroughly enjoying some ice cream during their vacation up there in the playground of the very rich and very famous, Martha’s Vineyard, where, for some very bizarre reason, GWB tee shirts were outselling BHO tee shirts. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1868)
There is a great bumper sticker out there that reads “Vote Democrat, Its Easier Than Working!” I am always interested to see what people using food stamps (it is actually a plastic card now) have in their carts at the supermarket check out. Do they buy the same discounted specials-of-the-week and store’s own label bargain stuff that I do? Not on your life. Only the most expensive brand name stuff that they see advertised on TV…. I try to think Zenlike thoughts but must admit it boils my blood every time.
Okay yes I buy name brand cause thats what my baby daddys kids deserve is the best and if you white xss mfs can afford it then you should pay for its. Okay then!
You know what?
Get a job. You could have had a college degree or something in the time that you spent “working” to get “benefits.”
Great post Robert. The time wasted by so many people looking for an angle for benefits is time that could have been spent bettering themselves via education, work experience, etc., so that they could live independent of gov.
White Boys, Food Stamps, and Eliot Spitzer
Some news stories are infuriating, some are validating, some are positively and pathetically amusing. One of each classification follows:
White Boys: They may not be able to jump but at least one black judge in Pennsylvania thinks they get favored treatment.
It should be ironic given President Obama’s post-racial America that Allegheny County Judge Joseph Williams still thinks that way but it’s not ironic at all since Obama’s post-racial America is a sorry joke.
Williams rejected a plea deal of 3 months probation for 24 year old Jeffery McGowan in a case involving a fight with a traffic cop saying that it was “a ridiculous plea that only goes to white boy,” adding that a black defendant in that situation would not have been treated as leniently: http://tiny.cc/o4g9j
The first problem I have with Williams’ statement is that he referred to a 24 year old man as a “white boy.” Unless I’m seriously mistaken, had a white judge called a black defendant, whether he were a 24 or 16 “black boy,” would have been censured, if not fired. Why wasn’t Williams?
The second problem I have with him is that Judge Williams had the audacity to not merely imply but to voice a definitive opinion that his or any court treats blacks and whites differently. If he has any substantive proof of the existence of such blatant racism, he should make that proof known–or keep his mouth shut on the issue.
Such is the state of Obama’s race-neutrality in 2010 America,
Food Stamps: The ancient Romans had a different name for welfare and for buying votes. They called it “panem et circensis,” bread and circuses, bread and games. Among other things, America calls it food stamps. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2138)