As the campaign 2016 moves into full swing, we hear the same claptrap about workers, jobs, and economic prosperity that we always do but that seems elusive no matter whom we elect. About a week ago, I posted something critical of an utterance from Hillary CLinton and received in about an hour about 40 personal attacks from people I didn't know existed and at whom the comments were not directed. That kind of vehement outburst tells you that you've hit your mark, when people you do not know loathe you enough to roast you in print and libel your character based on 140 characters of something you wrote. These are people who do not like the rules and who think that the pirate's code ought to apply because if things were truly equal, they'd reap what they sowed and be absolutely miserable. While they judge you for your weaknesses, they lionize other people who hate you in this parliament jester's foist that distracts you from truth and tugs at your heartstrings. It demands that you be charitable to strangers and enemies while those who require that of you treat you like dirt. It's duplicitous; it's diabolical; it's Democrat dogma.
Far too many young people live for the moment without planning for the future, requiring the world to take care of them when they did nothing to take care of themselves. We all know the story of the grasshopper and the ant, where the grasshopper walks around caring only about right now and talking about how the world owes him a living while the ant stocks away food for the inevitable winter. When the grasshopper runs out and comes to death's door, the ant helps him. The trouble is that the grasshoppers today expect to be rescued and then complain when we don't. On the way home from the grocery Friday night, I passed a trio of black teenagers. As I passed, one of them asked me for a dollar, and when I said nothing shouted, "Hey, I asked you for a dollar". He seems to feel he has a right to what I earn. I have money, he wants money, and so I ought to give him my money. Well, I doubt very much that if the roles were reversed I would be treated with more than scorn and disdain. The welfare state discourages industry and teaches people that they have a right to things simply because they exist and that I by extension have a right to give away what I get because others exist. It is a new form of slavery that indemnifies the industrious to slake the sloth of the indigent and miscreant and then vilifies me if I refuse to give what his lack of industry has not earned.
As an effort to counter this, previous presidents instituted workfare which compensated people for effort at least. Without tying the effort to the rewards, it at least demanded that people do something in order to receive welfare benefits besides making it safely out of the womb or stumbling drunkenly over the border. It's the same program employed at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City, where a homeless man from Reno once told me he was asked to relace shoes before they gave him dinner. Under a workfare arrangement, they don't worry about whether the work pays for the benefits because the point is to require something of them rather than showing up in order to receive benefits. It teaches people to work; it teaches them that "there's no such thing as a free lunch" no matter what the politicians prattle, and asks them to trade something of themselves for something else that they value. That's how life actually ought to work.
However, most of the lion's share of life falls squarely on those who take care of business. As everyone suspects, there are a lot of people in my college who do as little work as humanly possible. Most are the last to arrive and the first to leave, and there do not seem to be any repercussions. Into this dystopia comes our hero- Paul. I first met Paul at the campus gym last summer when he picked up the ID card I dropped and handed it to me. Since his name is easy for me to remember and his face easy to recognize, and since we work in adjacent buildings on campus, I see him and speak with him frequently during the week. Most of our encounters are brief, but they are unique in that he always gives me a high five when we pass in the hallway. Early on, I respected him because when the rest of IT went home early or were AWOL, I could find Paul, and even if he couldn't help me, he was at least there to pass it on personally to his superiors when they arrived the next day. You see, Paul is actually a student worker, and consequently he lacks permission and knowledge to do certain things, but he's an asset because when I need help he's at least willing to try. Paul impressed me with his work ethic. Not only does Paul work in the computer lab, but he also started a few weeks ago on the late night custodial shift. Contrary to most young people, this young man takes on a ton of work. Unlike his contemporaries who want to sit on their duff, smoke pot and still get an A from the professor, Paul is out there working off his keester trying to be self sufficient. He instills me with hope in the rising generation that they don't all expect everything to be handed to them or come easy. Paul is working hard for his money not demanding that other people who work hard give him stuff because he is there.
Ronald Reagan excoriated those who think that the fat man got that way by taking from the thin man. It's not that simple. People receive paychecks who do very little work, and some of the hardest workers on the planet barely eke out an existence. However, when you demand that other people plow and sow and reap so that you can glut yourself from the fruit of their labors, that's essentially slavery. You do not have a right to things you did not earn, even if someone gives it to you. That's charity. You do not have a right to demand charity from me when you decry and disdain the moral code and religious dogma to which I decide to adhere. If your only commandment is that it's only a crime if you get caught, then there are no rules, and nothing protects you from having YOUR fruits taken unless you're in charge. That's not civilized behavior; it's the law of the jungle- bring back food or be food yourself. It's also the philosophy of hell, to take a man's soul and give him NOTHING in return, to devour others to sustain yourself, and it's positively diabolical, and yet people have been convinced that it's noble, virtuous, and praiseworthy to require those of us who work hard to sacrifice for those who would riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth if the tables turned. It's nuts.
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