Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Dependence: It’s All About Who One is Dependent on.

According to the Census Bureau, there are more people on some sort of means-tested government benefits program then working full-time in the fourth quarter of 2011 with 108,592,000 people receiving benefits and only 101,716,000 working full-time.  (1)  As someone currently working full time, and when tax season rolls around, more than full time, I now understand why I feel like the hamster on the wheel.  I am running with all my might and seem to be going nowhere. 

These Census Bureau figures signify that we have crossed a serious line where there are now more on the dole then are paying into the system.  This trend is entirely unsustainable and must be reversed but, the longer people in our nation are dependent on some sort of government assistance, the harder it will be to reverse this dangerous trend. 

Mitt Romney took a lot of heat in the last Presidential Election when he made his 47% comment.  Here is a transcript of Romney’s comment, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.  All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.  That that’s an entitlement.  And the government should give it to them.  And they will vote for this president no matter what...

“Our message of low taxes doesn’t connect...so my job is is not to worry about those people.  I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.  What I have to do is convince the five to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful....” (2)   Mitt Romney did not win the election and so the unsustainable trend of the ever-expanding dependency class continues to grow.  The question now before us is how do we reverse this dangerous trend of government dependency?

We are all born as dependent creatures.  Without the help of loving parents to feed us and take care of our basic needs, we would all die soon after our birth.  As we progress in our lives, we grow and become less dependent on our parents.  However, this does not mean we are no longer dependent creatures, it means that we transfer our dependency to others.   

Some people choose the path of dependence on a career.  They go to school and attain a marketable skill and either go to work for someone else or start their own business.  This is the career path Mitt Romney chose for his life and was the perspective he was coming from when he made his comments.  Romney’s opponents believed he was poking fun at those drawing a government check and condemned him for his remarks.  However, as someone who has chosen the career path of dependence, Mitt Romney was attempting to point out how government dependence is cheating many of the opportunity to succeed as he had. 

However, like any man made program, the career path is not perfect and not everyone succeeds as Mitt Romney did.  This is because success is dependent on the abilities and ambition of the individual.  Some individuals with high level of drive and ambition are able to achieve great success while others only achieve limited success or even fail due to a lack of ambition or drive.  However, those choosing the career path retain greater control of their success because it is dependent upon how much drive and ambition they put into their pursuits.  For those that have failed in the career path, they may have to go on a government program temporarily while they discover a new career path that will lead to their success.

However, some individuals choose to place their dependency on some government official or program.  These are the people Mitt Romney was referring to in his comments about the 47%.  These individuals will always vote for someone promising more government programs to meet their needs with no consideration for what damage these programs may do to our nation.  For example, they are not concerned about Obamacare raising the debt and causing massive deficits just as long as they can receive free health care.  However, with the failure to launch of Obamacare, and the sticker shock of finding out it will cost even more than their current coverage, the 47% may be suffering from some buyer’s remorse.  (3)  Such is the plight of those choosing to be dependent on government officials and programs designed to promote the politician and not the person suckered into voting for them.  Obamacare is not about affordable health care but about giving government, and politicians more control of our personal lives through our health care. 

The answer to our dependency dilemma is a change of heart.  To achieve this requires

1)      A restoration to the Godly principles this country was founded upon.  In the words of John Adams one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence we find, “[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.  The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.”  (4)
2)      Changing our education system from its current operation as an indoctrination system back into an education system by restoring control of the classroom back to teachers.  Of course for this to work we must rid our education system of bad teachers by eliminating tenure and abolishing teachers unions designed to protect the current indoctrination system.  We also must eliminate the current trend in education towards common core standards. 
3)      Changing the media by boycotting movies and programs promoting promiscuity and vilification of the achievers whose ambition and hard work have built our great nation. 
4)      Educating people about how our Constitution was designed to protect the God given rights of our nation’s citizens and how over the last 100 years liberal progressives have incrementally torn our constitution to shreds.  We will then propose how we can peacefully bypass the federal process and add save guards to the constitution to restore our nation to Constitution law as our founders envisioned. 

As you can see, this will not be easy but I believe the people I am speaking to are not opposed to a challenge and hard work.  Without a change of heart in our nation, I shudder to think of the kind of nation we will leave for our children and grandchildren. 

Over the next several Wednesdays, we will be looking in depth at each of these steps toward the changing of the heart of our nation.  Many of us wonder what we can do to restore our nation.  It is my hope that what we discover over the next few Wednesdays will provide some answers. 

1. Rousselle, Christine. Great: More Americans on Welfare Than Working Full Time. townhall.com. [Online] Towh Hall, October 25, 2013. [Cited: October 29, 2013.] http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2013/10/25/great-more-americans-on-welfare-than-working-full-time-n1731984.

2. Sargent, Greg. Romney: I’ll never convince Obama voters to take responsibility for their lives. www.washingtonpost.com. [Online] The Washington Post, September 17, 2012. [Cited: October 29, 2013.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romney-ill-never-convince-obama-voters-to-take-responsibility-for-their-lives/2012/09/17/0c1f0bcc-0104-11e2-b260-32f4a8db9b7e_blog.html.

3. Coca, Onan. Obamacare Fans Get Sticker Shock. eaglerising.com. [Online] Eagle Rising, October 9, 2013. [Cited: October 29, 2013.] http://eaglerising.com/2162/obamacare-fans-get-sticker-shock/.


4. Wall Builder. Importance of Morality and Religion in Government . www.wallbuilders.com. [Online] Wall Builders, January 2000. [Cited: October 30, 2013.] http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=63.

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