Today is Day Six of Week One of the
Omer. That is Day Six of the Omer. The theme of the Week is Slavery.
As we’ve progressed
through this week and I’ve offered daily thoughts on the various ways that we
are enslaved even today, even as we celebrate our liberation from the slavery
of Egypt three-and-a-half millennia ago, I’ve received some really good and
thoughtful feedback from you, my readers.
Thank you!
Tonight I’d like to
write about the slavery that results from entitlements and the entitlement
mindset. I’d have to say that this is
one of the most prevalent types of slavery in our societies today. It permeates the social fabric in the USA,
and I find it perhaps even more so in Australia.
In my lifetime, as
well as those of many of you, our respective societies have been transformed in
many ways. And not all those ways are
bad. But the entitlement mentality is
something that has not served our countries well. Both Americans and Aussies have traditionally
been known, among the peoples of the world, for exemplifying a self-sufficient,
‘can do’ spirit. In both my native land
and the one where I’ve lived for the past four years, I find that the person
who operates from a mindset of self-sufficiency, is exceptional.
Charles Murray, a
sociologist and political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, shows
how the Modern Welfare state destroys human community and human initiative by
providing guaranteed income and benefit for those who fail. He coined the Law of Unintended Rewards: Any social transfer increases the net value
of being in the condition that prompted the transfer.
I have to say that I very much see
this law at work on both sides of the Pacific.
The Welfare State encourages pregnancies by teenage girls and young women
who do not yet have the maturity and responsibility to raise children. Why not make babies? I get a stipend from the government for each
one I make. And the welfare state
has surely exacerbated the problem of absentee fathers. Why worry about whether the father of my
children is around? If he’s absent, I
get more money from the government. If
he’s around, he might contribute but I have to put up with him. And, lest you think I’m singling out unmarried
mothers for vilification, I also know a number of able-bodied men who
deliberately stay well underemployed so as not to put a dent in their
Centrelink benefits. The ease of
applying for, and receiving benefits makes it an attractive alternative to
working in minimum wage and similar jobs.
It makes it far too easy for so many to wallow in their sense of hopelessness
rather than reach for better things. It
kills enterprise and weakens our respective countries.
It is not considered polite to
criticise the welfare state, and even now I’m sure that there are those reading
my words who think me selfish for singling out the most vulnerable in society
for criticism…or something like that.
But I keep thinking about Maimonides and his Eight Levels of Tsedaka, or
charity. The highest of the eight levels
is to empower someone, by teaching them a new skill, employing them, or giving
them a loan to start a business. In
other words, to give them a boost to make them self-sufficient. Back in the 1990’s in America, under
President Bill Clinton with more than a nudge by a Republican Congress which
was inspired to a large degree by the writings of Charles Murray, a series of
welfare reforms were enacted that did just these things. Sadly, over the decades since, things have
reverted. Today in the USA, almost half
of all citizens receive public assistance – not including old-age pensions
which in America are more like an annuity than an outright entitlement.
The main problem with the Welfare State
is not that it comes out of taxpayers’ pockets – although that is bad enough –
but that it kills initiative, makes relationships extraneous and weakens family
structures. The superficial attractiveness
of receiving benefits, creates multi-generation assistance recipients. It is a hole, out of which it is difficult to
dig. It represents a modern form of
slavery, robbing whole classes of citizens of the joy that comes from making
one’s own way in life.
The entitlement mindset has built a
societal ethos where it is the rare young person who wonders how he or she
might find a satisfying and meaningful life’s work. Instead, legions of school leavers are only
wondering how to maximize their social benefits, to get as much of a free ride
as possible. In doing so, they don’t recognize
that they are making their ultimate happiness more and more elusive.
Clara and I have always tried to
impress on our children that nobody owes them anything. Their futures, their happiness, their
ultimate satisfaction from a life of meaningful work, is completely in their
own hands. We hope that we are not just
two feeble voices, not heard above the siren song of entitlements. How we hope our children will live a life in
the freedom of work and initiative, freed from the bondage of entitlements and the
slavery of thinking that society owes them.
No comments:
Post a Comment