When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.The word “entitle” stood out to me this year. It made me think of all the people with an “entitlement mentality”. It is another word that had a great meaning, now being distorted by a culture of victims.
What is it that we are entitled to? The immediate context deals with the right of a nation to be free from foreign oppression. If you go to the next paragraph you get to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. We are entitled to use our own efforts to pursue our dreams or put our focus on being a couch potato. There is nothing here about taking the sweat from the forehead of one citizen and passing it off to someone on perpetual vacation. When you do that you take my life and give it to someone else.
The major problem I see in finding solutions to the health care issues, Social Security, Medicare and all the other entitlements people think they deserve, is that everyone thinks they can come up with a system where they get what they want and someone else pays for it. If Social Security only covered those who paid into it and was genuinely based on what they paid in, it would be solvent. If government health care plans didn’t end up giving people Cadillac plans for the price of a skateboard then things like Medicare would be solvent. The problem is that the politicians, and voters, think that they can gimmick the system so that someone else pays.
Keep in mind that ultimately you and I are that someone. Freedom isn’t free, neither is health care.
homo unius libri
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