Walter Williams has a good article on LewRockwell.com about senior citizens and handouts. While senior citizens are fed up with the current system, see Obama as a Marxist, socialist, narcissist, and every other evil thing, don’t like government spending and so forth, they can’t seem to give up their handouts. I can sympathize, I understand how they must feel, but that doesn’t stop me from advocating the end of Social Security and the like.
I am the future, and I will be paying the price for Social Security…while enjoying none of the benefits. Are senior citizens in America so present-oriented that they would live the rest of their days at my expense? Now perhaps from a moral perspective, I would want to help the older generation when they need it. Perhaps I would like to assist them financially or however they need help…but this must be voluntary. When assistance is no longer voluntary, it ceases to be moral. You can make a case for young people helping older people. But you cannot make a moral case for a third party stealing from young people to help older people. The end does not justify the means. This seems to be an epic struggle of the world, I remember reading about the Catholics in the Reformation time, trying to justify their money-making schemes because it would save souls from purgatory. The omelet justifies the breaking of eggs…or so some say.
If any sort of “reform” is going to work, if we are to stop our country from galloping down the road to serfdom, we can’t hold a double standard. “The government shouldn’t spend money…unless it is on me.” That is a morally unacceptable position for someone who sincerely wants to fix the problem in Washington…which brings me to another complaint.
Many people talk about how bad things have gotten in the last couple years, specifically since Obama became president. They will say, as I just did, “our country is galloping down the road to serfdom…but at least before Obama we were meandering very slowly.” Problem is, we’ve been lurching down this ubiquitous road since Alexander Hamilton (please see DiLorenzo’s book, “Hamilton’s Curse”), since Henry Clay, since Lincoln (please see DiLorenzo’s book, “The Real Lincoln”), since Teddy Roosevelt, since Wilson, since FDR, since, well…just list every president from FDR to the present and you’ll get the idea. Perhaps we can view this current “age” as the completion of what was started long ago. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and threw over 12,000 people in jail because they didn’t agree with him. And the completion of the tyrant’s dream? The one and only tragically misnamed “Patriot Act,” passed by none other than the great and noble former President George Bush.
We blame Obama for the rotten economy…but remember that Bush was president when it started, he was the one who had the brilliant idea of bailing out the economy. Obama just continued that legacy.
So, if you’re going to complain about how bad our country has gotten…please be fair and give credit where credit is due…that means both parties.
