The culture in America has grown into one of gimme, gimme, gimme. There is an entire generation that does not know an America without government programs that give away money to citizens. A generation that sees people living solely on the hand outs from government. The older generations that knew life before any progressive movement are all but gone. It is a shame that not all have listened to our grandparents and great grandparents about how life was in those earlier times. Sure life was harder, it was tough when people relied on themselves and their local community but it brought a sense of self worth and a pride in community.
This country of ours has been through some really tough times. There was the revolution to get the country started, the subsequent wars with England and Native Americans, the Civil War, and of course the big wars of the twentieth century and now the war with radical Islam. No every one seems to think that the government owes them a living. This could not be further from the truth. This country and the government formed to keep it together is the fruits of labor, the labor of many men who had a vision of a place to live where the central government did not control every aspect of the their lives. The governments of Europe in the 1700’s were ones that had complete control of the lives of their citizens, from their religion to how much money they could keep for themselves from there labors. All property was owned by the government and was handed out as that government saw fit. There was no private ownership of anything unless you were the monarch ruling the country. The founders of this country sought several things in the forming on a new nation. Private ownership of property, the ability to keep what they worked hard for, and self rule or the foundation of government came from the people not over the people.
These ideas and principles are still alive today, just buy fewer and fewer people. Now I have noticed that people are not remembering history the way it was taught to me when I was growing up. It would seem that textbooks are being changed but that is another subject. Entitlement programs were not written in to law in this country until the 1930’s but even then the programs were designed to get people back to work and make them self sufficient. In other words they were not supposed to be permanent. As people got back on their feet and became more self sufficient the programs were suppose to go away. In the 1960's entitlement programs were expanded and a wider base of people were now entitled to handouts instead of hand ups. What happened out of the 60's is a generation that expects to be handed everything without having to work for it. No longer did you have to be elderly or disabled to get Social Security and Medicare. People are getting income assistance just because they don't make enough money. What ever happened to finding a better job or better yourself for a better job? In 1996 President Clinton did try to reform the entitlement system by instituting time limits as well as monetary limits on benefits. I guess that those limits don't exist anymore.
Now our government is involved in business and bailouts left and right. It is not only an Obama or Bush problem, remember Regan did it back in the 80's but that was supposed to be a loan to be paid back. Today we are letting the government through more and more money in to the failed automotive companies and financial institutions. Yes if it wasn't for the money from the federal government those businesses would be dead. No one wants another depression. No one wants to see bread and soup lines and massive unemployment. However the monster in the closet that we are feeding by constantly throwing money at failed businesses and trying to recreate programs that are already in place instead of fixing the system. I remember that in the Constitution the federal government of the US is to regulate interstate commerce not recreating it. Our law makers removed a lot of the regulations that has caused the financial mess that we are in. I say regulate the banks and financial institutions again. regulate the medical industry don't feed into the current system. Fix Medicare and Medicaid, don't replace it. There are constitutional ways to fix our problems. Let the states handle the business within their borders, or make them and make the federal government stay with in its constitutional restraints, interstate and international commerce and policy issues.
If people are going to stand in line for handouts and refuse to do anything to put themselves back on their own feet then tell them NO! We will help you help yourself but well will not support you just sitting around collecting dust watching TV. Go to school, get a job. Uncle Sam is not your 'sugar daddy' get your hands out of his pockets.
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