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Personal Responsibility Keeps You Strong

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: Dependence on the government, and the largesse of entitlements, could bring this republic down.

Personal Responsibility Keeps You Strong

Government Entitlements Keep You Weak Today, the U.S. Senate was voting to approve yet another extension of unemployment benefits. Why? Despite numerous claims by the government and mainstream media that the recession is ending, too much of America is out of work... and if we judge our leaders more by what they do than by what they say, they also believe the end of the downturn has yet to come into view. Frankly, a strong case could be made that things will get a lot worse before they get better.

At what point, even a Democratic lawmaker wondered out loud this week, will we have extended so much entitlement payment to Americans that they lose the will to even look for work again? Indeed, what would motivate a person to work for a paycheck when they can get the check without doing the work?

Dependence on the government, and the largesse of entitlements, could bring this republic down.

Imagine, as Darwin might, what would happen over generations if suddenly the only sustenance available to humans was mother's milk. It's not hard to believe that, within a few generations, humans would stop developing teeth. What for? You don't need teeth for breast-feeding. Then, many generations later, if meat and vegetables became available, they might not even be recognized as food. Of course, since the human organism is meant to develop, mature, and sustain itself with protein and carbohydrates (and since mothers would not be able to produce milk without nourishing themselves properly), this fantasy would lead more quickly to the extinction of humans than to their adaptation to a food-free world.

The progressive, tax-and-spend, nanny-state movement in America has been slowly marching the nation toward a metaphoric meat-free state since the early part of the last century. Seeking evolution of our system of government instead of revolution against it, the progressives have moved slowly, one new program or extension at a time (like the one on the floor of the Senate today). Entitlements have been slowly on the rise for a century in the United States, while freedom to provide for oneself through enterprise and hard work has slowly declined.

Sounds bleak. But if reliance on entitlements is the disease, refusal of entitlements in favor of a long-term view toward hard work and enterprise may be the cure. Don't give up. You don't have to accept the mother's milk of government entitlements as your best hope for the future. Instead, strike out, seek your fortune, like all the pioneers before you have done. Sure, the risks are great. But the rewards are greater... and, indeed, the rewards of personal responsibility have always been the only outcomes acceptable to the generations of Americans who made the nation great.

Don't retreat into the weakness of dependence. Move smartly toward strength: start a business, launch a product, develop the next Big Idea, pay off your financial debt. In your heart you know it's the only future you want to look forward to... the only one you'll accept.

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Article Tags: economic reform, financial debt, government entitlements, personal responsibility



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