Letter to the editor
We are becoming a nanny-state; it has happened under the last several presidents. And to top all of this off, where in God’s name is the money for all these worthless social programs? If a politician can tell me that, I would be amazed.
Social welfare does not improve anyone’s quality life; if anything it makes it 10 times worse. Social welfare’s goal is to make everyone equal; it takes away personal initiative to better you and succeed in life. It’s not the government’s job to give me food stamps or provide me with healthcare. It is my job to provide myself with the goods and services that I either want or need to survive. The problem with welfare now is that it has become a way of living and not a temporary thing, which was its original intent. People who are perfectly able to work aren’t because they are just being handed free stuff, so why would they work?
When I go to the store around the first of the month and see how much food families are buying with the welfare card, it’s straight ridiculous. It is more food than my family goes through in two months, and I have also seen these people driving BMWs and Jaguars. I think if you are driving a BMW you can afford your own food. It also infuriates me to the core because I have been working since I was 13 and I am still working now, with two jobs, and still managing to go to school; so if I can do it, I know everyone else can. Now the three exceptions for using welfare, is if you are mentally or physically disabled, a veteran of the armed forces, or if we hit tough times like this and need temporary help. I have no problem with welfare, but it’s the people who are living on it because they are too lazy to work. Hard work is what built this country; it wasn’t handed to them on a silver spoon.
Something you fail to address with the student loan takeover is that the government is now a monopoly in the student loan industry, which means they can charge any interest rate they want. Now, I’m not saying they’ll charge a super high one, but we have opened the door for it. It is one thing to offer student loans to compete with private competition, but when you eliminate the private competition completely, that is wrong. If a bank was charging high fees and an interest rate, common sense tells you to find another bank for a competitive loan.
Capitalism does not create poverty; lazy, unmotivated people on welfare create the poverty for themselves. Even if you’re in a rough situation, if have the motivation you can work hard and get yourself out of that situation. Look at the movie, “The Blind Side,” which is based a true story; the young man was given a second chance and he worked hard to get where he wanted to go, and now look at him playing for the Baltimore Ravens.
I hate to burst your bubble, but when the government takes more of your money by taxing your income more, they are taking your freedom because you have less money to spend and/or save on yourself the way you see fit. It is not the richer folk’s job to pay 40% of their yearly income in taxes to pay for everyone else. Now, the more you make the more you should pay, but a flat tax of 15% accomplishes this really well and much better than our corrupted tax system now. One day I hope that my hard work will pay off and that I’ll be making six figures, but it is not my responsibility for my hard-work to be taxed more than anyone else.
We have seen time and time again that when the government put their nose in something they shouldn’t be putting their nose, it never turns out good. Look at the feds buying Amtrak or the feds running the Postal Service, have either corporation ever turned a profit. I think not. The best thing the government can do is just stay out of everyone’s business and make people learn that responsibility for themselves. Did the founding fathers have anyone there babying them while they were building the greatest country on Earth?
-Joshua Kramer
