The 'Take Care of Me' Society is Wrecking the USA [We've lived off our children, grandchildren..]

The Fiscal Times ^ | January 28, 2012 | By MAUREEN MACKEY,

[fight_truth_decay]

You’ve played by the rules. Worked hard to put yourself through school. You’ve gotten a decent job and you pay your taxes. You’re faithfully paying down your mortgage and saving money in a 401(k) – all to secure your finances and your future. But now there are a lot more “takers” than “makers” in this country – and the impact is systemic and long-lasting.

A prevalent new “moocher culture” is changing the character of this nation – that’s the core message of A Nation of Moochers: America’s Addiction to Getting Something for Nothing, a new book by Charles J. Sykes, senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and the author of six previous books.

“This has been the flash point in American politics for the last several years,” Sykes told The Fiscal Times in an interview this week. “In the wake of the Great Recession, we’ve shifted from a culture of celebrating and encouraging those who are productive and hardworking, to a culture where handouts, bailouts, freebies and entitlements dominate. You start to wonder, Why am I paying the freight for those who have been reckless and irresponsible, whether it’s on Wall Street or in Washington or anywhere else in the community? I think we’re becoming a very different nation.”

Excerpts from our conversation with the author follow:

[Jay Santos CP]

....when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed. - Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged 1957

Prescient is understatement. If the book hadn't been one of the slowest, plodding pieces I've ever read, I might have gotten to that gem.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Government doesn’t have cashiers,

Base Salary for a Massachusetts toll taker (an uneducated and unskilled cashier) is $60,000. That doesn't include health and pension benefits. Try finding one in the private sector for that.

[dragnet2]

Ya ever been to any of the thousands of DMV's?

Ya go 290 pound government clerks with 3 inch nails treating the people the other side of the counter like they are annoying them, as these parasites force the private sector to re-register the same freaking vehicles, over and over and over and over. All while the bloated government employees discuss what they're going to eat for lunch and where they are planning to retire to on their government pensions.

Ya ever been to a court nowadays? They've got more cash registers than a Super Walmart.

A racket and scam does not begin to describe this government insanity.

[fight_truth_decay]

Government doesn’t have cashiers, waiters, or factory workers to lower the workforce salary average. Almost everyone is well educated doing a complex job.

There has come to be a better understanding of the definition of "well educated". To have useless Letters after ones name, where formal education stops in the bricks and mortar of university buildings, but with those tools one has been given they step forward into real life where the real "Learning" begins. And probably broke too unless Mommy and Daddy were generous. Too often that is where the learning stopped, they considered themselves the best and the brightest already; but when they entered the real world-they were not equipped for reality that others were better and brighter, so continued to rest on the safety of these Letters, degrees and hoped who they knew or would come to know, those they should choose to align themselves with, would help coattail them up the ladder to personal success tailor made for a job in politics. Put enough of these 'limited thinkers' together and you find they cannot handle the task at hand, not just one of them; but now all of them are in one room determining our futures, so they cover or hide the facts, yuk it up to take up the minutes of the meeting, give something away over and over again, put on their "smart face" and hope no one realizes what a stooge they really are.

[fight_truth_decay]

Ya ever been to a court nowadays? They've got more cash registers than a Super Walmart.

I can say proudly "I did not know that" [lol]

[dragnet2]

I can show ya lists of government positions with very official sounding titles, which are 30 pages long, where most capable of critical thought can not even determine what the hell these people do all day.

[cherokee1]

Maybe Ms Mackey does a good thing by helping start the conversation but she falls way short in indentifying the whole sliding problem. I’ve been watching it develop for the last half century when people began moving off the farm at a much higher rate. In my high school graduating class (1960) only 5 of 100 kids lived in town. At our recent 50 year reunion only 5 of the same 100 still live/work a farm.

To me, it started in the late 60’s when it got easier for people to make a living with a very limited skill set. Never mind the beginnings of the welfare state by LBJ, that’s a big factor, but specialization in the work place, unionization rules demanding simple jobs, and a whole range of related developments made it possible for people to make a good living with a limited knowledge base and skill set.

We saw the progression of job titles such as administrative assistant, human resources specialist, account executive, financial advisor, security analyst and on and on and on. Many, if not all, larger companies gradually took the basic military model of defining jobs in very simple terms to minimize training and “getting up to speed” time. But now when a company goes titsup these people are useless to anyone else. One can see that every time a news guy interviews the folks in an unemployment line. It turns out these formerly well-paying jobs aren’t really worth much in an economy going global on roller skates. A whole lot of folks who thot they were valuable now find out “not so much”.

Way too many people thot they’d grabbed the gold ring when they got that first good job. Don’t have to keep learning skills. Don’t have to do any more homework. Don’t have to read anymore of those books—just too HARD! The boss should pay me if he wants me to study on my own time-—how many times have I heard that -—going back to the mid 60’s. ( and by the way: they’ve gotten fatter) It doesn’t take me long to convince my own employees that they have to keep learning. At first they tend to resist but then the light comes on. Most of the people who’ve worked for me over the last three decades now have their own businesses-—they learned how to do research, they learned skills they never dreamed of, They learned how to root out and recognize opportunity, and when they thot they had a base made a run for it. Many still feed my company work as subs and I’ve not yet seen one fail. AND-—no one who’s ever worked for me is now unemployed.

There only 12 million of us left in this country, USA, that actually manufacture something. The rest are overhead, non-production, service, riding in instead of pulling the wagon. If you find yourself in a tough spot take a look in the mirror and see if you are pulling, riding, or just sitting on the curb clapping at the parade.

[fight_truth_decay]

These cashiers?

in Massachusetts.

..or you can drive through the "Fast Lane," which is a computerized system . Obama should stop blaming ATM's and blame the state government for this "technology".

This is funny http://www.zug.com/pranks/turnpike/ The Massachusetts Turnpike did not really care what you put in.[this could be dated] And I might add very unfriendly toll takers [note below] in those few toll stations occupied by a living body.

Taxpayers pay over and over again to build and maintain roads..why should they still continue pay to drive over them? I wonder if you get to name the road..like in when the sign asks: "Buy a Road?", they put your name on it; then do you still have to pay.

Won't even get into the Big Dig which construction went on and on for years [is it really safe?] which taxpayers all over this country paid for and will never even see say much use.

Massachusetts has always had a corrupt state government as long as anyone can remember. The toll money went to the Turnpike's plutocops, formally named Troop E reported the biggest of the racketeers who ran the Turnpike into the ground [ article] Then MA had Paul “the Cook” Moccia, the cocaine dealing Turnpike toll collector who went up on murder charges having shot, dismembered and then cooked up the bodyparts of his cocaine supplier. [will also drive through faster next time Yikes]

[not bashing you, LoneRangerMassachusetts, just the state..but it is fun to listen to through WRKO's Howie Carr.] ;)

[fight_truth_decay]

These cashiers?

in Massachusetts.

..or you can drive through the "Fast Lane," which is a computerized system . Obama should stop blaming ATM's and blame the state government for this "technology".

This is funny http://www.zug.com/pranks/turnpike/ The Massachusetts Turnpike did not really care what you put in.[this could be dated] And I might add very unfriendly toll takers [note below] in those few toll stations occupied by a living body.

Taxpayers pay over and over again to build and maintain roads..why should they still continue pay to drive over them? I wonder if you get to name the road..like in when the sign asks: "Buy a Road?", they put your name on it; then do you still have to pay.

Won't even get into the Big Dig which construction went on and on for years [is it really safe?] which taxpayers all over this country paid for and will never even see say much use.

Massachusetts has always had a corrupt state government as long as anyone can remember. The toll money went to the Turnpike's plutocops, formally named Troop E reported the biggest of the racketeers who ran the Turnpike into the ground [ article] Then MA had Paul “the Cook” Moccia, the cocaine dealing Turnpike toll collector who went up on murder charges having shot, dismembered and then cooked up the bodyparts of his cocaine supplier. [will also drive through faster next time Yikes]

[not bashing you, LoneRangerMassachusetts, just the state..but it is fun to listen to through WRKO's Howie Carr.] ;)

[fight_truth_decay]

the people who’ve worked for me over the last three decades now have their own businesses—they learned...no one who’s ever worked for me is now unemployed.

You taught them, you deserve to be proud of their achievements as they are your achievements..are you available to run for President?

[cherokee1]

President? I thot about it. But I shouldn’t have to. I’m one of the producers, remember?, and I’d be letting a lot of people down if I changed focus? But I did take an oath once to defend our constitution. That oath never expires. I’m a bit long in the tooth but I trained for forty years, ran farther than Ron Paul has ridden his bike, and am in better shape than any of the moonbats currently on stage. If the country slides any further tho, and my wife says it’s OK, I swear I’ll step in and at least adjust a few attitudes

[ctdonath2]

Glad someone else found that fact: federal revenue averages 19% of GDP - _always_. A little fluctuation, yes, but always right around that. Play whatever games you like with soaking the rich, spreading the pain, flat tax, fair tax, VAT tax, whatever - revenue never exceeds 20% of GDP. Squeeze somewhere hard enough and the money will go elsewhere. Every deficit solution and every spending plan MUST take this into account.

And I’d expect any serious attempt to exceed that natural limit will lead to war of some kind. Respect the limits of human nature, or society will break down fast.

[cherokee1]

You’ve done a great job of describing what’s going on in Europe right now. The Eurotrashes are busy demonstrating the end of the “social democrat” state. Watch a little bit of Deutche Welle news every day——it’s like a slomo bungi jump with no rope. Put March 31 on your calendar and watch for the Gleeks to hit the creek first. They are the first to have a huge bond payment coming due and they don’t have the beans to cover it. It took over a year because they kept lying about how much debt they had. But they finally bid it up to 400 billion Euros and there is not enough hay in Europe to feed that fat cow. And that’s just the start of the eurozone troubles. The Greek economy is about the size of Chicago, give or take, and you have to add a lot of zeros to compare them to us——but the mess they have is the mess we’re making, and soon.

[cherokee1]

Whoa! You say FERS is no big deal? You either don’t understand it or have never actually worked on the other side to compare, or both. You OWN your payroll deductions. FICA guys don’t own anything except hope that it might one day be a benefit. When you leave the gummint you have the option of taking ALL your money with you-—FICA guys don’t own a dime.

And you can get subsidized vision, dental, and life? I’m sure you don’t mean to sound ungrateful but do you have any idea how many folks can’t get that on ANY terms? Please don’t whine about how tough things are in your Federal job——if you don’t like it, learn a trade and shop for another.

Here’s a hint: I had a short federal career about four decades ago. When I left I drew my retirement. I used the money to build an apartment rental unit. That unit has repaid the full value of my retirement each year since, for the past four decades. And by the way-—there’s plenty of room to move up in the federal system. Be good at what you do. Study and learn more skills. Get smarter than your boss. Keep track of what your unit is doing and study what is going on in the larger department.

I occasionally have time to write stuff like this. You don’t. You should be studying SOMETHING so get crackin’.

[mom4melody]

I’m great at what I do, thanks. I promoted 3 steps in two years.

And I am at study...Business Law, with a 3.8 GPA.

I am also the chairperson of our local Zoning commission, volunteer at my kids school and our church, and do public speaking on the behalf of children and the adoption industry.

FERS won’t be a big deal for me, I won’t be there long enough for it to matter much.

As for toll takers, they are not federal government employees and I can’t speak about state or county employees. But tossing all of us in the same barrel is misguided and wrong, and unfair to the people who work hard.

For the rest of the class envy responses....CONTROL, ALT, DELETE...

[x_plus_one]

The city dwelling, institutionalized (college, union, government), criminal (drug, etc) population has reached critical mass. There are more bad guys than good guys.

[mom4melody]

Oh, and P.S....I’ve never worked for a company that didn’t offer vision, dental and life insurance as part of their benefit package...EVER!

My husband hasn’t either. It’s always been an option with our employers, every single one.

Perhaps our job skills, work ethic, and education has allowed us to be hired by the better companies.

To quote our resident-in-chief and his band of merry fools...I guess “IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!”

[Texas Eagle]

Youtube - Why she loves welfare, food stamps, Obama

[Texas Eagle]