Through the years, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend happening throughout this country. A sense of entitlement that is spreading like wildfire throughout our fair land. You can see it in our youth, when they expect their parents to open their wallets to give them every little thing that they want. You see this in all of the government programs that are being developed to dish out “help” or to bail out different companies, individuals or groups. We are constantly being told that “it is a right to have health care”, it is a right for us to be bailed out of a bad mortgage that we signed, even knowing that we really couldn’t afford it. But it is not a right, it is a privilege. Previous generations worked at their jobs, which provided them health care. They worked hard to scrimp and save for a down payment on a house, and bought one when they could afford it.
I have been thinking a lot about what this country has become and I have just a couple of questions….what has happened to the American sense of pride. The strong work ethic that used to be so prevalent? What has happened to responsibility and accountability?
Recently, I’ve been compiling a collection of stories that had been written about my great grandparents, great aunts, great uncles and my own grandfather as they moved from Finland to Michigan in the 1920′s. My great grandfather was injured and ultimately died as the result of an industrial accident leaving my great grandmother to raise eight children on her own. My great grandmother received no settlement for his injuries or death. Just after my great grandfather passed away, the stock market crash of 1929 occurred, which led to the great depression. But nowhere in any of the stories of my family was there talk of looking to the government for a handout. They simply did any job necessary to bring in money, cut corners where they could and banded together as a family. The people in the community did what they could to help one another as well. They rallied around one another, never once complaining about having to work long hours or giving up things in life. They simply did what had to be done in order to survive. They relied on themselves and their own resources. And they made it through using creativity, innovation, sweat, and pure gumption. They were responsible for themselves. Too many Americans do not understand that anymore.
Today, the news commentators talk about how things are the worst that they’ve been since the Great Depression. But we take for granted how bad things really were then. Unemployment had reached almost 25%. And welfare didn’t exist. What we are experiencing now is nothing compared to what they faced then. And even with a recession and economic worries, we are still far more blessed than so many other countries in the world. We’ve just become to spoiled to realize it.
The welfare programs that we have in the US today are a direct result of the Great Depression and both welfare and social security were created in the last half of the Great Depression to try to ease the pain that Americans were feeling at that time. But the same welfare program, which was created to help those who needed assistance has also created a huge problem in our country. It has made us become too reliant on the government to solve our problems and has taken away the spirit that previous generations possessed that motivated them to buckle down and do anything they could to get by. The ideal of working hard for the things you want is becoming obsolete. The dying of these principles is slowly killing creativity and innovation within our homes. We are losing the art of problem solving, because it has become far too easy on relying on someone or something else to solve our problems for us.
It has become a new form of slavery. Where once, proud Americans used their sweat, ingenuity and tears to see them through the difficult times, now when the going gets rough, our hands go out. We expect the government to save us. But we’ve forgotten that we need to save ourselves. And so the entitlement programs continue to grow, and continue to be developed at a rapid pace. And the country’s sense of entitlement grows right along with it. Too many are simply too ignorant or apathetic to even care about where the money comes from to “bail them out”.
These are only a couple of examples, but I know that there are many more out there. When did we become a lazy country? And when did we get to the point that so many people began to believe that you can get something for nothing? Whenever the word “free” is involved, there is always a price. And it is frightening to know that there are people out there who do not understand where that “free” money comes from…..out of the pockets of those who are willing to work long hours and earn their money. As we become more and more dependent on the government to supply our needs, an unhealthy relationship forms. We lose more and more of our freedom to make decisions for ourselves. Then we lose more and more of our actual rights, and ultimately, the government is in control of every aspect of our lives. It becomes our master and we realize that we are no longer in charge of our own lives.
This week, the president signed the very controversial health care reform bill into law. A bill that was put together because some in Washington feel that health care is a “right”. Another example of how the government is more fully an imposing presence in our lives. But we do still have a choice. We have the choice, and the right to speak out against the ever growing government. We have the right to vote and allow our votes to remove those who would continue to work towards making our government larger and elect those who would give more power back to the people. Most importantly, we have the right to pray, and enlist the help of our Creator, who has far more power than anyone in Washington. And we can begin to educate those who may out of ignorance not know any better. We must help them to understand what the consequences of becoming enslaved to the government and losing our freedom is really all about.
So today, the choice is yours. Are you willing to work hard for the things that you want in life? Or are you willing to give up your freedom for an easy handout?
