…to death:
…it’s true that at any point Rob could have taken concrete actions to change his path — and he bears moral responsibility for his failure to act — but it’s also true that our government has relentlessly incentivized every step of his deterioration, all in the name of compassion. Even worse, by providing such generous benefits with no meaningful strings attached, we’ve also essentially immunized him against the kind of assistance that he truly needs — the “tough love” that demands that a man do what he can to help himself through productive work.
The result? Another statistic. Another father who is no longer a role model for his children. Another sadly shortened lifetime’s worth of money (some borrowed from China) paid to sustain a lifestyle not good enough to enjoy and not tough enough to leave.
There’s nothing compassionate about this. And I don’t even believe that the intentions are good.
This is what happens when children are in charge. Children get in charge when you allow a popularity contest among other children to determine who is in charge. The entire reason for a republic (over a democracy) is to limit the number of people in charge so we can select adults.
Popular election of senators may have been our first mistake.
In other words, the government safety net carries a Moral Hazard. A concept more people (at least among those who vote) must understand before this nation can reclaim its former glory.
It also carries an extremely high implicit marginal tax rate.
The people who’re turning social security disability into permanent unemployment checks really piss me off. My oldest brother is disabled but refused to take the disability checks because he wanted to work and managed to do so. He is a mechanic who lost about 90% of the use of his hands due to a cyst on his spinal cord. That really limited his ability to earn a living as a mechanic but he was still able to make some money doing emissions tuneups and diagnostic work. Being a mechanic did terrible things to his severely curved spine but he loves working on cars. He turns 65 next year and we’re hoping he’ll retire. SSDI was intended for people like my brother but is being abused by the people who want more “free money.”
You ain’t lying when you say working on cars is bad for your back. I worked in a garage for a couple of years right out of high school. Being 6′ 4″ trying to work on a little import was literally a pain in the back side.
It isn’t any different in Australia. My wife and I know at least a couple of people who aren’t as healthy/active/productive/doing themselves any good because of the welfare safety net. As someone said, it is meant to be a safety net, not a hammock.