Dependence on Government

My idea of success is for a person to go through life without becoming a burden on their fellow citizens. This is not always possible but once you do become a burden, your every sense should be to unburden your fellow citizens.

Explaining the benefits to mind and body rooted in independence isn’t enough to cause some people to risk the comfort of a handout for the difficult path to independence.

The Conservative agenda is to help those willing to spend their time and effort to escape dependence on liberal welfare programs.
The Liberal agenda is help those not willing to spend their time and effort to escape dependence comfortable with their dependence.

The price for the contentment of independence is responsibility. Responsibility is the deal breaker between independence and dependence. The reason some people accept the comfort of dependence is because they cannot accept the responsibility of being responsible. When you are dependent on government you can blame the government for all that happens to you.

Responsible independent people can only blame themselves for what happens to them.

"Why Do Some People Accept Dependence?"

A question often asked in political discussions by the folks working so hard at shutting down private sector production from government jobs...

Heavy Hitters: Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2014
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $60,949,129 [Democrat] 81% [Republican] 1%”

Leviathan (Uncle Sam employs more people than you think)
National Review ^ | 02/03/2011 | Iain Murray
"...nearly 40 million Americans employed in some way by government."

...and from NGOs.

America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution
http://spectator.org/articles/39326/americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution

The Fragmenting of the New Class Elites, or, Downward Mobility
http://volokh.com/2011/10/31/the-fragmenting-of-the-new-class-elites-or-downward-mobility/

Environmentalism and the Leisure Class
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2835601/posts

The New Upper Class and the Real Reason We Dislike Them
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2843575/posts

Are you a member of the political class?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/are_you_a_member_of_the_politi.html

Downton’s Class System — and Ours: We have a ruling class that despises the free market and does...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3024119/posts

But the answer is right here in front of them, again and again. They've made real, productive work effectively illegal in many ways while repeatedly breaking American working class families, all to prevent any new competition from rising.

"The Conservative agenda is to help those willing to spend their time and effort to escape dependence on liberal welfare programs."

Yes, repealing regulations against residential owner-building on private properties, against manufacturing on private properties with primary residences, outlawing impact fees, repealing feminist laws against families, shutting down the Dept. of Education, cutting half of non-defense government spending,... Oh. That hasn't happened, yet. Political folks don't like seeing men at work. Where are the conservatives?

"Responsible independent people can only blame themselves for what happens to them."

They won't do that, even after many are laid off and others' pensions are cut due to repudiations of debt. The laid off bureaucrat constituency might start the kind of insurrection seen in Greece but much larger and more violent.

Elijah knows.

Obama signs emergency bill to halt teacher layoffs
yahoo ^
Posted on Tue Aug 10 17:38:51 2010
"The aid for the states is to be paid for mostly by closing a tax loophole used by multinational corporations and by reducing food stamp benefits for the poor...The legislation provides $10 billion to school districts to rehire laid-off teachers or to ensure that more teachers won't be let go before the new school year begins."

Mutually Assured Destruction [Tues. debacle confirms growing rift between Dems & teachers unions.]
American Spectator ^ | 11/5/10 | RiShawn Biddle
"Congressional Democrats angered centrist school reformers, MoveOn.org-style progressives, and other party activists in August when they voted to ladle $10 billion in federal subsidies (funded from future cuts to the Food Stamp program) to school districts in order to stave off layoffs of 160,000 teachers (or just 2.6 percent of the nation's 6.2 million school employees). In turn, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers poured more than $40 million of their hefty campaign war chests (including more than $15 million by the NEA in the last weeks of the election season alone) to help the Democrats keep full control of Congress."

House bill would cut $4B a year from food stamps
Associated Press ^ | Sep 16, 2013 6:28 PM EDT | Mary Clare Jalonick
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3067558/posts

Three-quarters of Americans think teachers paid less than they really are
Washington Examiner ^ | 9-16-13 | ASHE SCHOW
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3067473/posts

Should the Government Help Homeowners With Underwater Mortgages?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2843181/posts

Cushy government pay, benefits nationwide (UNION EXTORTION)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1544705/posts

Life's tough for $144,000 garbage collectors
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2662108/posts

Government Workers Make 45 Percent More Than Private Sector Employees
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2447819/posts

Firefighters, Teachers and Police - Not a Federal Responsibility
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2896477/posts

More than 13% of DWP workers are paid $100,000 and up
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1905448/posts

LAUSD: Teachers have little reason to cry poor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2095889/posts

$85,000 salaries: Teaching pays off
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1008237/posts

Joy of six (figures): 738 NYC teachers getting $100G+ pensions
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2456298/posts

77,000 feds paid more than governorsGovernment salaries put under scrutiny
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2728143/posts

How Dramatically Did Women's Suffrage Change the Size and Scope of Government?

JOHN R. LOTT Jr.
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) (download links for whole document at bottom of page)

September 1998

University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 60
Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 107, Number 6, Part 1, pp. 1163-1198, December 1999

Abstract:

This paper examines the growth of government during this century as a result of giving women the right to vote. Using cross-sectional time-series data for 1870 to 1940, we examine state government expenditures and revenue as well as voting by U.S. House and Senate state delegations and the passage of a wide range of different state laws. Suffrage coincided with immediate increases in state government expenditures and revenue and more liberal voting patterns for federal representatives, and these effects continued growing over time as more women took advantage of the franchise. Contrary to many recent suggestions, the gender gap is not something that has arisen since the 1970s, and it helps explain why American government started growing when it did.

Interesting observations. I’ve long-held that there are certain people that are just “meant” to be ruled over. They seem to prefer it to independence. I’ve got a younger brother who fits that category, but me and my older brother don’t, so not sure how much is nurture vs. nature; but it’s an interesting concept to dwell on.

I see a lot of it in the under 25 year old crowd. No desire whatsoever to plant their own flags in the dirt or blaze their own trails through life. Perfectly content to just “get by” leeching off of others. It’s foreign to me.

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