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Sowell: Is Personal Responsibility Obsolete?
Creators Syndicate ^ | June 7, 2016 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 06/06/2016 11:09:07 AM PDT by jazusamo

Among the many disturbing signs of our times are conservatives and libertarians of high intelligence and high principles who are advocating government programs that relieve people of the necessity of working to provide their own livelihoods.

Generations ago, both religious people and socialists were agreed on the proposition that "he who does not work, neither shall he eat." Both would come to the aid of those unable to work. But the idea that people who simply choose not to work should be supported by money taken from those who are working was rejected across the ideological spectrum.

How we got to the present situation is a long story, but the painful fact is that we are here now. Among the leading minds of our times, including Charles Murray today and the late and great Milton Friedman earlier, there have been proposals for ways of subsidizing the poor without the suffocating distortions of the government's welfare state bureaucracy.

Professor Friedman's plan for a negative income tax to help the poor has already been put into practice. But, contrary to his intention to have this replace the welfare state bureaucracy, it has been simply tacked on to all the many other government programs, instead of replacing them.

It is not inevitable that the same thing will happen to Charles Murray's plan, but I would bet the rent money that there would be the same end result.

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: sowell; taxes; thomassowell; welfare
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To: jazusamo

I use to respect this guy. Now he’s just pablum.


21 posted on 06/06/2016 11:31:05 AM PDT by NurdlyPeon (I'm going with Trump.)
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To: jazusamo

My little brother posted something on Facebook last week that falls right in line with this. It was a Meme that said if conservatives wouldn’t let people abort their unwanted babies then we would have to be responsible for feeding them. It got me wound up and then my liberal siblings threw in and now no one is talking to each other. They think that I’m immoral for opposing their right to kill unborn babies and not wanting to support deadbeats.

I felt that there was more than two alternatives. How about if people who want to have unprotected sex with people they don’t intend to marry take responsibility for their actions instead of expecting everyone else to do it.


22 posted on 06/06/2016 11:34:29 AM PDT by mbynack (Retired USAF SMSgt)
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To: miss marmelstein

23 posted on 06/06/2016 11:35:04 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Better questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.)
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To: jazusamo

Personal Responsibility is absolutely NOT obsolete. The problem is, we’ve given it over to Police, Government & unions. PR is very much alive. We just ignore it.


24 posted on 06/06/2016 11:40:30 AM PDT by dware (I don't care what bathroom they use, as long as it's in the nuthouse, where they belong)
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To: Graybeard58
It would be close to 50-50 in the U.S.

I agree. The younger brothers and sisters of the Feel the Bern crowd are going to start turning 18 and the scales will tip.


25 posted on 06/06/2016 11:40:36 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: mbynack

Yep, I have a couple of lib relatives and we don’t talk politics it’s just easier, they know they won’t change me and I know I won’t change them. :)


26 posted on 06/06/2016 11:40:57 AM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: jazusamo

We HAVE to start changing minds!

Otherwise we are just going to be plowed-under by products of the public school system + immigrants.


27 posted on 06/06/2016 11:50:03 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: jazusamo

In real life there are no “participation” trophies.


28 posted on 06/06/2016 11:51:43 AM PDT by RU88 (Bow to no man)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

I hear what you’re saying. These two have had over 50 years to change and haven’t so they can stay in their dream world.


29 posted on 06/06/2016 11:59:05 AM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: jazusamo

“Is Personal Responsibility Obsolete?”..........

Particularly if you are a democratic politician, but more than likely all politicians


30 posted on 06/06/2016 12:04:18 PM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Buckeye McFrog

What a brilliant idea, give everyone more money every month than the average person pays in taxes every year.

This would bring Lady Thatcher’s comment to life in about three months.


31 posted on 06/06/2016 12:14:36 PM PDT by cyclotic (Guns don't kill people. Abortion clinics kill people)
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To: miss marmelstein

No, it’s actually a biblical mandate to take care of yourself and your families needs, otherwise starve.


32 posted on 06/06/2016 12:15:41 PM PDT by cyclotic (Guns don't kill people. Abortion clinics kill people)
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To: mbynack

How is it that siblings do not have similar moral views?

My kids are split by sex. The boys are conservative and the girls are very liberal. Two of the girls are University of Colorado graduates, that explains their views. The other daughter and her husband are career military. He is a rabid liberal whose parents are conservative. How? Why? They are serving our country but are the biggest hypocrites when it comes to social issues.


33 posted on 06/06/2016 12:53:48 PM PDT by BatGuano (You don't think I'd go into combat with loose change in my pocket, do ya?)
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To: jazusamo

Jesus asks if he will find faith on the earth when He returns. One of the core tests of faith is if a person will believe in the Commandments. When they seek to solve a problem in society, can they think of ways to solve it that are in harmony with the Commandments, or must they violate the Commandments to effect their solution?

This is the conflict that socialism seduces people into making: that they want to help people who have genuine needs, and the only solution they can envision is one that justifies violation of the Commands the prohibit coveting and theft. They cannot have faith in charity, and so they must circumvent charity with government coercion and compulsion.


34 posted on 06/06/2016 3:07:26 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: jazusamo
The track record of divorcing personal rewards from personal contributions hardly justifies more of the same, even when it is in a more sophisticated form. Sophisticated social disaster is still disaster — and we already have too much of that.
It's not my place to run the train
The whistle I can't blow.

It's not my place to say how far
The train's allowed to go.

It's not my place to shoot off steam
Nor even clang the bell.

But let the damn thing jump the track
And see who catches hell.

Separating responsibility from authority is a cardinal sin of (mis)management.

35 posted on 06/06/2016 3:39:32 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service ing.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Absolutely, well said.


36 posted on 06/06/2016 4:55:00 PM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Mr. K

When all of the jobs have been automated. How will we earn a paycheck?


37 posted on 06/06/2016 5:22:43 PM PDT by oldbrowser (The republican party is the voters, not the politicians.)
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To: mbynack
It was a Meme that said if conservatives wouldn’t let people abort their unwanted babies then we would have to be responsible for feeding them.

We require mnen to be sexually responsible...some gal is pregnant, and the guy is legally responsible for the next 22 years.

Why is it unreasonable to expect women to act in a sexually responsible manner?

38 posted on 06/06/2016 5:55:18 PM PDT by gogeo (If you believe Trump is not the answer, you obviously don't understand the question.)
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To: Mr. K
Oh we still agree on that, the socialists just won't SAY IT until they are in power.

Why do you say that?

39 posted on 06/06/2016 9:25:59 PM PDT by gogeo (If you believe Trump is not the answer, you obviously don't understand the question.)
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To: mbynack

At the same time, they were probably screaming “don’t judge me!” at the same time calling you a bigot. Who is judging who, exactly? They always like to throw around the bible verse judge not, lest ye be judged. But who is judging who?

I’ve changed my tactic. Tell them they are free to open their legs or spread their cheeks to anyone or anything that wants in there and decent people have to foot the bill for their diseases and abortions. They are winning all these little battles....but they lose the war.


40 posted on 06/07/2016 5:33:08 AM PDT by tuffydoodle ("Never underestimate the total depravity of the average human being.")
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