On rewards

It is more just to reward effort, even if it cannot be proven to benefit the least affluent, than it is to reward the least affluent even if they exert little effort to improve their status. Moral superiority does not entail punishing the industrious wealthy to sustain the indolent poor.

-- Robert A. Levy
Chairman, Cato Institute

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The matter addressed above by Robert Levy in “Cato Policy Report” (Mar/Apr 2012) becomes even more important when considered in view of public policies that encourage indolence—rather than industry—amongst those in need. This concern is multiplied when public policies also seem bent upon punishing without mercy those who prove themselves industrious or in possession of wealth.

Surely such madness is on the very brink of national suicide in the name of benevolence (falsely so-called).

Welfare dependency destroys black families

On socialism, slavery and blacks in America

Social theorist George Fitzhugh justified slavery as a positive good: "Slavery here [in the U.S.] relieves" the African "from a far more cruel slavery in Africa.... It christianizes [sic], protects, supports and civilizes him; it governs him far better than free laborers at the North are governed.... The master labors for the slave, they exchange industrial value. But the capitalist, living on his income, gives nothing to his subjects. He lives by mere exploitations." Unlike the "wage slaves" (a term Fitzhugh coined), African-Americans were cared for from the cradle to the grave. "Slavery is a form, and the very best form, of socialism," Fitzhugh wrote in 1854.

[The above adapted from a speech by Robert M.S. McDonald, associate professor of history at the U.S. Military Academy.]

The tragedy is that Fitzhugh's arguments can be reframed to fit the subjugation of American blacks (and other minorities) to socialist welfare policies by Democrats and progressives today. Rewritten as:

"Welfare here in the U.S. relieves the African-Americans from a far more cruel slavery in Africa (or elsewhere).... Welfare protects and supports him; it controls him--assuring that he always knows who his 'master' is and to whom he owes his allegiance at the polls (namely, the Democrats). Welfare controls them far better than free laborers in free-market capitalism are controlled. One never knows how those folks might vote!?!

"In exchange for the African-American's unthinking support at the polls, election cycle after election cycle, the Democrats and progressives promise to care for him (poorly, but care for him, they will) from cradle to grave.

"We, the liberal politician 'masters' will 'labor for them.' We will do whatever is necessary to keep ourselves in a position of power so that we can also assure our 'control' over the votes of the African-Americans under our sway. And we will always endeavor to convince them of how much better off they are under welfare than under the 'exploitation' of the capitalist. We will accomplish this--with the assistance of the willing aid of a progressive media—by avoiding calling attention to the successful blacks who have managed to become successful 'runaway slaves', for we do not want too many others to believe that they might be better off away from the 'plantation' of the welfare state.

"Slavery to welfare is, after all, the very best form of socialism."

Liberals enslave the poor to their poverty

It is ongoing liberal, so-called “progressive,” Democrat public policies that keep many minorities in the U.S. today enslaved, by and large, to programs that reduce their incentive to industry, commerce, and self-improvement. It is a further shame that such public policies and such ongoing class warfare is frequently encouraged by liberal-minded, power-hungry leadership within the minority communities themselves.

These programs function not only as a disincentive to work (i.e., actually have a job), but they also lead to the deterioration of minority neighborhoods as more and more (especially) males are jobless and on the streets day after day. Their hopeless state brought about through well-intentioned but dramatically misguided public welfare programs, leads to increased involvement with drugs and crime while two-parent homes dissolve because the welfare programs pay better when there is no 'bread-winner' in the household.

NOTE: If you don’t want to take my word for it, then at least click on the links in this post and read what is written there before contacting me. Thank you.

Democrats on government spending and job creation

The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center web site claims that the country "Moved from record deficits to record surplus" and "Began paying off the national debt" while "[creating] nearly 23 million jobs" and supporting the "[f]astest and longest real wage growth in over three decades." The site also claims that during this time:

• "Family income reached record highs”
• "Unemployment was the lowest in over three decades"
• "Lowest overall poverty and child poverty rates since the 1970s"
• "Lowest percentage of Americans on welfare in 32 years"

So, how did the Clinton administration achieve all these wonderful things?

Well, according to the web site, they reduced the size of government, achieving the "[s]mallest federal civilian workforce in 40 years." They also reduced the burden of federal spending on the economy by having the "[l]owest federal spending as a share of the economy since 1966" and the "[s]lowest per capita growth of government spending since the 1950s."

TODAY'S DEMOCRATS ARE WRONG!

And, remember, the Clinton administration only achieved these things with the help of a Republican-controlled Congress.

Many of us are unhappy...

"Many of us are unhappy about our worsening economic problems, about the constant crisis atmosphere…, about our diminishing prestige…, about the weakness in our economy…, about our lack of strong, straightforward leadership. And many Americans today, just as they did 200 years ago, feel burdened, stifled and sometimes even oppressed by government that has grown too large, too bureaucratic, too wasteful, too unresponsive, too uncaring about people and their problems.

"Americans, who have always known that excessive bureaucracy is the enemy of excellence and compassion, want a change in public life - a change that makes government work for people. They seek a vision of a better America, a vision of society that frees the energies and ingenuity of our people while it extends compassion to the lonely, the desperate, and the forgotten.

"I believe we can embark on a new age of reform in this country and an era of national renewal - an era that will reorder the relationship between citizen and government, that will make government again responsive to the people, that will revitalize the values of family, work, and neighborhood and that will restore our private and independent social institutions. These institutions always have served as both a buffer and bridge between the individual and the state - and these institutions, not government, are the real sources of our economic and social progress as a people.

"That's why I've said… that we must control and limit the growth of federal spending, that we must reduce tax rates to stimulate work and savings and investment. That's why I've said we can relieve labor and business of burdensome, unnecessary regulations and still maintain high standards of environmental and occupational safety. That's why I've said we can reduce the cost of government by eliminating billions lost to waste and fraud in the federal bureaucracy…. And, because we are a Federation of sovereign states, we can restore the health and vitality of state and local governments by returning to them control over programs best run at those levels of government closer to the people. We can fight corruption while we work to bring into our government women and men of competence and integrity." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)