Posted on 02/08/2016 11:51:00 AM PST by jazusamo
During this election year, we are destined to hear many words that are toxic in the way they misrepresent reality and substitute fantasies that can win votes.
One of these words is "entitlement." To hear some politicians tell it, we are all entitled to all sorts of things, ranging from "affordable housing" to "a living wage."
But the reality is that the human race is not entitled to anything, not even the food we need to stay alive. If we don't produce food, we are just going to starve. If we don't build housing, then we are not going to have housing, "affordable" or otherwise.
Particular individuals or groups can be given many things, to which politicians say they are "entitled," only if other people are forced by the government to provide those things to people who don't need to lift a finger to earn them. All the fancy talk about "entitlement" means simply forcing some people to work to produce things for other people, who have no obligation to work.
It gets worse. If we are all "entitled" to things, irrespective of whether we produce anything ourselves, then the question becomes: Why are some people getting so much more than others?
People who are producing nothing can feel a sense of grievance against those who are producing much, and being rewarded for it, if our basis for receiving economic benefits is supposed to be what we are all "entitled" to, rather than what we have worked to earn.
One of the most misleading uses of the notion of entitlement is to say that people who paid into Social Security for years are now entitled to the pensions they receive.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Gotta love Sowell
And the funny thing is not all of the are Democrats.
John “God wants to grow Government” Kaisch is of the same mindset.
Nail, meet hammer.
Yep, it includes both sides of the aisle.
The one thing we’re entitled to is the liberty to produce all these other things without some self-appointed, self-anointed “wise ones” telling us when, where, and how.
Not always but in this case...yes!
Vocabulary is destiny. Don’t use the vocabulary of the Left.
“Yep, it includes both sides of the aisle.”
That aisle is shrinking by the day : )
I’ve offer the EXACT same deal you just outlined.
Fish ain’t biting.
Hank
You’re exactly right, my FRiend.
I’ve long thought that major reason, beyond increasing Democrat voters, that otherwise reasonable people support excessive immigration is simply to prop up the Social Security “Trust Fund” a little longer.
I made a similar request when I was twenty-six and was denied.
Render into Caesar what is Caesars and plan on opening a 401K account or otherwise make other arrangements for your retirement.
Thanks for the ping. Sowell is a true national treasure.
“If they give me back the money I have been FORCED to pay in I vow that I will ask the federal govt for NOTHING in my old age”
As an employer I second the motion. I have to pay matching funding of all employees. That is money taken in by my business to pay out above and beyond the wages negotiated with my employees. Then add on government mandated insurances and the employer has written lots of checks to government and insurance companies to pay for “entitlements” for the “deserving”. And my employees would rather I just put that money on their checks as they don’t collect unemployment, are not looking to have an “accident” on the job, and would rather choose whatever insurances they prefer or none.
Didn’t this use to be a free country?
Social Security used to be called the third rail of politics.
(The third rail of a subway carried a lethal voltage and was sudden death to anyone who touched it.)
If Professor Sowell doesn’t live to be 100 and keep writing the whole time I’m going to be very, very disappointed.
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