Posted on 07/03/2014 11:57:08 PM PDT by quesney
Do I really have to explain to all three of you what a sacred trust is? The people of this country, even before it became a nation, made a vow to the soldiery. Protect us, fight for us, possibly become maimed or even killed for us and we’ll take care of you or your widow and orphans. Now comes a time when certain groups, especially statists and libertarians, say that there’s not enough money in the till to make good on our promises and you’re on your own. Sorry. Well, that won’t cut it. If there’s money to buy food stamps, rent payments, cash payments, medical & dental and a host of other things for people who did nothing for society other than winning the “Born in the USA” or “Snuck into the USA” lotteries, there’s enough to keep a promise.
Is receiving a payment for services rendered an "entitlement"?
Is the check you were promised, either from a program you paid into with money over decades, or the promise that if you were injured in the service of your country, your needs would be taken care of, an "entitlement"?
I would rather forgo the former than see those who were injured and disabled in the service of this nation not get the medical care and support they have earned.
Our veterans are truly "entitled", and this, too, was promised to them.
But if veterans and even those who have paid into Social Security are receiving "entitlements", by what reasoning are those who only by virtue of their presence, who are physically and mentally capable* of work, collecting an "entitlement"?
What makes them "entitled"?
IMHO, spawning another generation with no visible means of support does not 'entitle' them to anything, but the subsidy of such practices only guarantees the problem will continue to get worse.
*For those who don't believe that the welfare set is mentally capable, within the enclaves of EBT people there are commonly those who know the laws of their State or jurisdiction in regards to welfare benefits and free sh*t programs better than the people who administer the programs. The gibsmedats do pretty well for themselves by gaming the system, by knowing every possible benefit and how to squeeze it--all legally, if not defraud it. No existing weakness in that system will go unexploited, often with the apparent cooperation of those administering the programs.
For some reason, it seems handing out more free stuff to those who haven't earned it is a plus within those departments which do that, while those who have truly earned the benefits they seek are thwarted at every turn with the blessings of those who administer those programs.
Once again, I make the point that the word “contribution” is NOT accurate. The money was seized at the point of a gun, just as any income or property tax. But for some unknown reason you try to foist fault upon SS claimants, but give free rides to welfare queens and other assorted government deadheads. Speaking for myself, I would take a haircut on SS payments, but not without the participation of everyone else who is on the government tit. Why should we take the first bullet?
I think we all will - the numbers and projections are all just too big for any one group to be spared. Reality wont give a free ride to anyone when all of this inevitably comes to ahead.
Take your point on “contribution”. I should’ve put quotes around it.
When I worked at the unemployment office with welfare moms the social workers who had transferred over from DHS told me something very similar to what you said. They said don’t try to tell these people what they can and cannot do or get from the programs because Suzy, who is otherwise functionally illiterate, will quote you chapter-and-verse out of the regulations and show you that she is entitled to X due to rule 15.4-c on page 386.
*Free S**t Army
Do I really have to explain to all three of you what a sacred trust is? The people of this country, even before it became a nation, made a vow to the soldiery. Protect us, fight for us, possibly become maimed or even killed for us and we’ll take care of you or your widow and orphans. Now comes a time when certain groups, especially statists and libertarians, say that there’s not enough money in the till to make good on our promises and you’re on your own. Sorry. Well, that won’t cut it. If there’s money to buy food stamps, rent payments, cash payments, medical & dental and a host of other things for people who did nothing for society other than winning the “Born in the USA” or “Snuck into the USA” lotteries, there’s enough to keep a promise.
I think you might be confusing what I’ve said with what others have said - I think we’re all going to reap the whirlwind, through higher taxes, lower benefits, more confiscation and higher inflation. We’re already seeing the higher inflation as the government prints more and more money to pay its bills, reducing all of our purchasing power.
The numbers/projections are just too big and the economy too far into decline for any major group to be spared from what’s coming and what’s already happening.
As for sacred trust, I don’t need to tell you what your highest commitment was as a solider: to defend and preserve the Constitution and America’s continued existence as a Free Republic.
In that regard, we have all failed miserably.
You forget: That would require work. Oh, btw, they all dressed better than me, had nicer cars, had cell phones long before most people did and carried designer handbags. It was a one-week course on looking for work and resume writing and on Friday we’d have a pot luck. Some of them girls could cook!
There are many deterrents to going off the dole.
A small jump in income means the loss of a much higher value in benefits, so why risk a middle class lifestyle for one of genuine scratch by poverty?
Most starter jobs just do not pay enough to replace the bennies they reap, not by a longshot.
If the transitions were more gradational from dependence to self-reliance, perhaps more would want to work their way out, but with the jumps needed to replace lost benefits not likely in any economy, much less the one the US generally has, they will get what they can as long as they can.
This was at a time when a person could go to lunch from their office and have another job before they had to return. Those days are pretty much gone.
I lived a year in Baltic, South Dakota and I assume North Dakota is even colder, right?
Yep.
So you expect us, by ourselves or with some civilian help, to mount a coup de etat against the most powerful war machine and police system in the history of mankind? They have weapons you’ve never even dreamed of. I know, because they were on the drawing boards way back when I was in. They have underground transportation systems, nuclear power, aircraft decades ahead of what you see at the airport and other vehicles which make a mockery of those heavy POS that they’re giving away to the local Barney Fifes. And more. It may come to that, but if you think it’s going to be a replay of the Philippines, Egypt, Libya or some Central American revolt, think again. Trillions of dollars have gone into getting ready. TRILLIONS!
I was talking about what should have been done, ideally through the politically process, so that it never got this point.
As a very last resort, Bush should have gotten more support than he did to at least take a baby step toward easing our way out of this coming conflict/crunch.
And I kind of take issue with Baby Boomers saying that the burden is now on younger people to fix this, when they had decades to do so.
The projections aren’t new - too many Americans just chose to pay them a little mind, then shrug and go about their business.
Not expecting a coup d’etat at all - too many Americans are couch potatoes now. The Tea Party’s pretenses aside, Americans today are not the Americans of 1776 or the Americans of WWII. Not by a long shot. It’s not just about the politicians - their character is representative of the character of the people they represent.
If the transitions were more gradational from dependence to self-reliance, perhaps more would want to work their way out, but with the jumps needed to replace lost benefits not likely in any economy, much less the one the US generally has, they will get what they can as long as they can.
Very true - and a lot of this is because big Suggar Daddy government (spending, regulations, taxes,bureaucracy and fear of more bad policy to come) has squeezed the real economy and killed investment in it.
America’s business climate is getting worse, while business climates in many parts abroad have gotten better and more competitive.
We’re in quite a fix.
Dear delapaz,
(I’m sure that’s not slavic, is it?)
“Doesn’t matter if it’s a benefit or not”
It sure as hell matters to me, since I paid into it, and am collecting it, now.
It’s all the darn porch-sitters, lazy, and system-grifters that are making this a mess.
If there’s money to buy food stamps, rent payments, cash payments, medical & dental and a host of other things for people who did nothing for society other than winning the “Born in the USA” or “Snuck into the USA” lotteries, there’s enough to keep a promise.
From childhood, we were all promised a lot of things about what this country stood for and what it offered to anyone willing to earn. For many of us, these have already turned out to be lies and broken promises, and there are more broken promises to come.
I knew that there was something about you that I like.
Tick tock. ;-)
“They say that character is revealed when faced with the abyss. Well, we’re going to learn some things, maybe some surprising things (maybe not all that surprising to some of us), about the true character of this country.”
You and I already know a lot about how people will act. Judging from the way the attitudes of seniors on these threads has been, there is no one group that can be counted on to be patriots. It will just be individuals, hopefully some will pleasantly surprise us.
What we’ve encountered here is a far cry from the greatest generation that went through the first depression without whining and without government handouts. Then they fought a war to preserve democracy, again without whining. Then after the war, they built a booming economy and a standard of living unsurpassed anywhere. The only thing they did wrong was raise a bunch of spoiled brats that will dismantle it all. (And they voted for the New Deal, which started our slide into fascism.)
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