Tag Archives: Welfare state

Training the Sheep

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

Freedom is not a permanent state in any society. It is better visualized as something that has to be nurtured and defended constantly if it is to survive. The Founding Fathers recognized this truism. For example, Benjamin Franklin when asked what type of government had been created by the newly written Constitution, he replied: “A constitutional Republic if you can keep it.” Sadly, recent actions by the Biden regime raise the question of whether we are going to show the courage to fight for freedom or act like sheep.

The expansion of the welfare state and people’s willingness to be on the government dole, which would have been rejected by prior generations, shows that many Americans do not treasure their independence as much as we once did. All government handouts come with strings attached that limit our freedoms. Federal government funds provided for Medicaid expansion recently moved many states, including unfortunately North Carolina, to accept increased government control of our healthcare.

The use of fear by the Biden regime resulted in many people caving to the curtailment of their freedoms during the COVID outbreak. Similarly, they are using the fear of catastrophic climate change to get people to accept restricted freedom and a reduction in their standard of living. For example, recently proposed, impossible to achieve, restrictions on emissions from internal combustion engines will effectively result in only the production of electric vehicles by 2032. Freedom of choice is eliminated when the government allows only one option. That is also the case with gas stoves and other household appliances. The regulatory agencies are increasingly the way the Biden regime is controlling our lives and curtailing our freedoms.

Freedom of speech is the basis of all our freedoms. As the revelations made by the Republican controlled House have shown, the Biden regime, with the assistance of the FBI and the DOJ, colluded with platforms like Facebook and Twitter to interfere and block our freedom of speech. Questioning vaccines or man-made climate change were enough to get one blocked on these internet sites. Now, they have gone so far as to charge former president Trump with multiple criminal offenses because he dared to express his opinion that the 2020 election results were fraudulently obtained. Say something the Biden regime disagrees with and you are blocked on social media, or now, potentially indicted for a crime! If it can happen to an ex-president it can happen to all of us.

The youth of this country are being indoctrinated with the Marxist agenda. Make no mistake about it. This not only occurs at all grade levels in our public schools but also in our public libraries. Recently, I was in the public library in Boone, N.C., and observed a group of children on a scavenger hunt. The theme was the coming man-made climate catastrophe. The library staff conducted this program. No balanced information was given about the evidence that climate change is continuous and is caused by natural phenomena. Of course not!

Although the young people in our country seem oblivious to their loss of freedoms, we older people know better and must step up to fight against the Biden regime. Contact your elected officials and tell them you want the regulatory excesses stopped and the agencies that promote them de-funded. We must show them we are wolves not sheep!

The Wrong Incentives

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On December 22, The Washington Examiner posted an article about the impact America’s current welfare policies are having on unemployment and on our economy.

The article reports:

A massive labor shortage continues to hamstring the economy, with millions more empty jobs than unemployed job-seekers. All the while, millions of people remain on the sidelines, with the labor force participation rate significantly below the pre-pandemic norm. Why are so many potential workers sitting idle while jobs need to be filled?

Well, the astoundingly bloated nature of America’s welfare state offers one explanation, according to a new study . Conservative economists Stephen Moore, E.J. Antoni, and Casey Mulligan of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity analyzed what a typical four-person family, with two nonworking adults, could receive in welfare benefits, including both unemployment and healthcare subsidies, across the 50 states.

They found that in three states, Washington, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, this typical family can earn the equivalent of more than $100,000 annually without working, thanks to various government programs.

Meanwhile, in 14 states the benefits are equivalent to an $80,000 annual salary or more. In these states, welfare pays better than the typical job of a secondary school teacher or electrician, according to the study. In 24 states, languishing on welfare pays better than the typical salary earned by a firefighter, truck driver, or machinist.

Why would you bother to go to work when you could actually make more money staying home and doing nothing?

The article reaches the only logical conclusion:

“A key policy question these days that has befuddled federal lawmakers is why so many millions of Americans have not returned to the workplace in the post-Covid era,” the study’s authors conclude. “The U.S. is ‘missing’ more than three million workers of working age that could be working and were working prior to Covid but are not today. This study shows that one factor contributing to the dearth of workers is the generous benefits paid to families without workers.”

The takeaway here is clear. If we want our economy to recover fully from the COVID-19 pandemic and get roaring again, we have to reform our social spending programs so that we once again incentivize work, not welfare.

Voting For Your Own Demise

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Traditionally, black voters in America support the Democrat party. So what are they getting in return for their vote?

Yesterday The Blue State Conservative posted an article citing six ways that the Democrat party has hurt the black community.

This is the list:

#6: Lack of School Choice

#5: Lowered Educational Standards

#4: Disregard for Fathers

#3: Acceptance of High Crime Rates and Demonetization of Police

#2: Selling the Victim Mindset

#1: Promotion of the Welfare State

Please follow the link above for the details of this list. The article includes a lot of information about the impact of these policies.

In the article PF Whalen notes:

Around the same time that the last Republican mayor of Baltimore was leaving office in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson was putting the finishing touches on his so-called ‘War on Poverty.’ Over fifty years later, and after having dumped trillions of federal tax dollars into programs such as welfare, food stamps, and public housing, poverty in America is virtually identical to what it was in 1967.

Johnson’s War on Poverty is one of the worst debacles and biggest failures in American history. Think of what could have been done with those trillions of dollars that could have actually helped Americans. Yet Democrats won’t acknowledge the failure, and instead choose to double-down. It seems like every other week President Biden is proposing trillions in new spending on some initiative or another, usually designed to achieve ‘equity.’ Biden’s spending won’t work, just like Barack Obama’s, Bill Clinton’s, Jimmy Carter’s and LBJ’s spending didn’t work. It’s only going to make matters worse.

The problem of course is that in order to escape poverty, one needs to take ownership of their own fortunes. The government isn’t going to get you out of poverty, only you will, and you will need to work hard in order to do so. Democrats recognize this reality but push forward anyway. Democrats need the poor to remain that way so they can continue to enjoy their power. When Americans are sucking from the government teat with all of its handouts, they are reliant upon government, and that is what Democrats crave. The government is the solution to all of your problems, so elect me and I’ll take care of you. It’s disgusting. 

The article concludes with the following Author’s Note:

After completing this piece, we realized that abortion had not made the list. It needs to, and so we want to mention that abortion is responsible for over 100,000 murders of unborn innocents each year and fully one-third of all abortions in the United States. In 2018 alone, over 117,000 black babies were murdered and since 1973 there have been more than 20 million murdered black babies in total. Society loses its mind when violent criminal thugs like George Floyd or Daunte Wright are killed during deadly interactions with police, but remains silent on issues like this. Black lives cannot matter until all black lives matter.

If you are part of the black vote that supports the Democrat party, you need to take a closer look at what you are supporting.

‘Merit’ Under Attack

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Merriam-Webster defines merit as follows:

a obsolete : reward or punishment due

b : the qualities or actions that constitute the basis of one’s deserts Opinions of his merit vary.

c : a praiseworthy quality : virtue but originality, as it is one of the highest, is also one of the rarest, of merits— E. A. Poe

d : character or conduct deserving reward, honor, or esteem also : achievement composed a number of works of merit — H. E. Starr

The concept behind the definition is that something is earned. A person’s conduct, character, or actions deserve either a positive or negative response–generally today it implies a positive response.

The following quote is from an ABC News article posted yesterday:

“I want to just say something about the word that they use ‘merit.’ It is really a condescending word,” Pelosi said. “Are they saying family is without merit? Are they saying most of the people who have ever come to the United States in the history of our country are without merit because they don’t have an engineering degree? Certainly we want to attract the best to our country and that includes many people from many parts of society.”

I would like to point out that the most of the people who came to the United States came before the existence of the welfare state. Their ‘merit’ was their willingness to work to build America. Unfortunately many of the people now arriving lack that ‘merit.’ Many are coming here looking for a free lunch.

I am not opposed to family immigration, but we need to look at the consequences of having family immigration as the majority of our immigration. Uncle Fred might have been a successful farmer in his younger years, but his best years are behind him. His medical needs have increased and his ability to work has decreased. It may be the humane thing to do to reunite Uncle Fred with his family and give him the medical care he needs, but it is the humane thing to do while our veterans are waiting years for medical care that they have earned?

Can we afford to have an immigration system not based on what will help our country remain prosperous? Again, I am not opposed to family immigration, but we need to be certain that the people we bring into America will help build America and not be a burden on the people already here.

Merit doesn’t necessarily mean an engineering degree, but it does mean an ability to assimilate into America, work hard, and be an asset to themselves and to their community.

How Your Tax Money Is Spent

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The Daily Signal posted the following today:

Obviously we have some work to do. The question that comes to mind is why do we always hear that Social Security is running out of money but we never hear that the Welfare State is running out of money. I think it is truly time to examine the bureaucracy that support each. I suspect we could save some serious money there without hurting the people who truly need government assistance.

The Dangers Of Not Closely Monitoring Immigration

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On Tuesday The Daily Wire posted an article about some recent information from the Department of Homeland Security.

The article reports:

The Department of Homeland Security revealed Tuesday that the threat of “fake families” declaring asylum together at the United States’ southern border is no joke; more than 150 illegal immigrant “families” have used non-familial children or adults to attempt to convince border patrol agents to allow them to remain in the country.

The Daily Caller reports that “there has been a 110 percent increase in male adults showing up at the border with children. Further, DHS separated 507 illegal immigrants between April 19 and September 30 because they fraudulently claimed they were part of a family unit.”

The thing to remember here is that there are people in various countries in South American coaching people on how to break into America. If that is a harsh word, I’m sorry–it is what is happening. I will admit that our immigration system needs serious reform, but that is no excuse for people thinking they can simply come here illegally and stay. Right now America is severely in debt. We have neglected our veterans and are not doing a good job of taking care of anyone. We cannot afford to be overrun with non-citizens who want to be taken care of.

When evaluating what is happening at our border, it might be wise to consider the Cloward-Piven strategy from the 1960’s. Cloward-Piven was a strategy to convert America to a socialist state (taken from Discover the Networks):

Inspired by the August 1965 riots in the black district of Watts in Los Angeles (which erupted after police had used batons to subdue a black man suspected of drunk driving), Cloward and Piven published an article titled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty” in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation. Following its publication, The Nation sold an unprecedented 30,000 reprints. Activists were abuzz over the so-called “crisis strategy” or “Cloward-Piven Strategy,” as it came to be called. Many were eager to put it into effect.

In their 1966 article, Cloward and Piven charged that the ruling classes used welfare to weaken the poor; that by providing a social safety net, the rich doused the fires of rebellion. Poor people can advance only when “the rest of society is afraid of them,” Cloward told The New York Times on September 27, 1970. Rather than placating the poor with government hand-outs, wrote Cloward and Piven, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation; poor people would rise in revolt; only then would “the rest of society” accept their demands. 

The key to sparking this rebellion would be to expose the inadequacy of the welfare state. Cloward-Piven’s early promoters cited radical organizer Saul Alinsky as their inspiration. “Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules,” Alinsky wrote in his 1971 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judaeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system’s failure to “live up” to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist “rule book” with a socialist one. 

This may well be what the caravans are actually about. If this theory is too wild for you, step back and look at the movement toward socialism in the recent election.

Utopia Doesn’t Really Exist

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Yesterday The Weekly Standard posted an article about life in Sweden. It seems that many Americans on the political left view Sweden as the ultimate example of successful socialism.

The article reports:

Instead, Sanandaji shows, the root of Scandinavian success can largely be found in culture. These countries, and Sweden in particular, have historically had remarkably high levels of social trust, family values, a strong sense of work ethic, and social cohesion. The notion of the “Protestant work ethic” goes back far longer than the modern welfare state. Scholars like Max Weber, Sanandaji shows, long ago noted that the Protestant countries of northern Europe had an overall higher living standard and economic success than most. The often-celebrated equality of Scandinavian countries, too, began well before the welfare state was developed.

Again, these traditions and values by no means came with the welfare state. Sanandaji shows that these Scandinavian values follow people as they move abroad, even for generations: Americans of Scandinavian descent, whose ancestors left way before modern welfare states were established, tend to carry many of their norms with them. The median incomes of Americans with Scandinavian heritage is 20 percent higher than average income in the U.S. as a whole, and poverty rates in this group is roughly half of that of average Americans.

We could learn from this. The American welfare state has destroyed the family–not strengthened it. The “Protestant work ethic” has been thrown under the bus as second and third generation Americans find it easier to collect welfare checks.

The article concludes:

But that tradeoff still stands. If anything, the Scandinavian countries are good examples of how important it is to uphold social values and virtues that work. When Swedes voted a center-right coalition into government in 2006, they did so based on a platform that emphasized hard work and individual responsibility in a society where all too many healthy people of working age were living on welfare. This tradition of individual responsibility goes back all the way to the time when Sweden was largely a rural, farming-based country with individual tillers, Sanandaji points out.

The lesson isn’t only that the Scandinavian model is difficult to copy, but that it would even be outright unwise of a country like America to do so. What left-leaning people in America and other countries should ultimately learn from the Scandinavian model is that for redistribution of wealth to be possible, there must first and foremost be enough wealth to distribute. 

Poverty has much more to do with culture and behavior than it does with money.

The Need To Learn From Mistakes Made By Other Countries

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Investor’s Business Daily posted an article today stating that the Netherlands is changing the rules of its welfare state.

The article states:

The Netherlands has been known for its generous welfare system. Three decades ago, when the U.S. was spending about 22% of its GDP on entitlement programs, the Dutch were spending more than 40%. The Financial Times named the Dutch system a “comprehensive egalitarian social model” built in the 1960s and 1970s.

…Three months ago, newly coronated Dutch King Willem-Alexander told his country that the “classic welfare state of the second half of the 20th century” was over. It would be replaced by a “participation society” because the “arrangements” the nation was operating under “are unsustainable in their current form.”

Among the changes is a requirement that welfare applicants must prove they have actively looked for a job for at least four weeks before they can receive benefits.

“And once they begin to receive benefits they will either have to work or perform volunteer community service,” says the Cato Institute‘s Michael Tanner.

Other savings will be found when youth services, care for the elderly and job retraining are kicked down to the local level, which is better equipped to be more efficient with other people’s money.

The Dutch have learned that those who work cannot support those who do not work indefinitely. Eventually those who work get very tired and decide to join the non-workers. If we do not learn the lesson the Dutch have learned, we can also expect to have to make drastic changes in the near future.

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