All throughout the coronavirus hype, there’s been one that that has glaringly stuck out in my mind. Americans have forgot the role of Government. Let me give you a great example. In this USA Today article, there’s one specific line that caught my attention. In this comment, I think it shares the entire thought I’m writing about. About a third of the way down the article, the writer for USA Today quotes one of the cruise passengers in their statement.
“It shouldn’t be my job to keep her safe,” Saunders said, breaking into tears. “It should be their job, and they are not doing it.”
Who is she referring to by “their job?” The government of course. She is asking that the federal government dispatch resources to enforce social distancing and provide to their every need while they are in quarantine. Please do not think that I am heartless. Of course I’m ok that the federal government provide supplies to them while they are under quarantine at a federal facility. But she seems to be under the impression that they are at a 5 star hotel, rather than a temporary, emergency holding area.
In today’s society, it’s a constant barrage from the media and the left. We hear “you deserve free stuff” everywhere we turn. So much that Bernie Sanders could have won the presidential nomination had establishment Democrats not revolted on him. This website gives a good basic summation of the role of government. The role of government was to bring people together for rule of law and for protection. In the United States, that rule of law was established and said to “promote life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The pursuit of happiness, not guaranteed happiness. The last part of that phrase implies that it takes some personal effort. In other words, you must do your part to receive the happiness. But this is not what we find in our society. Our society prefers that we spend our way towards happiness and providing. This is not how our country has always been.
You can actually see the movement in some recent polls. This Pew Research poll from 2017 shows that the majority Americans want bigger government with more spending. The problem is that the majority that would support these programs do not see the correlation to the ballooning government debt. Our US debt is over $23 trillion, without all the coronavirus spending accounted for. It seems that no one gives any thought to this level of spending. That certainly seems evident with the Republicans recent support of the coronavirus financial bailout plan. Did anyone consider that this gives the Democrats a sample run for universal basic income, universal healthcare and many other social programs that they have been pushing?
As I said before, I realize there is a human side of this, but where do we give consideration for other things besides the government? Just perform a quick internet search, you will come across multiple articles where a community pulls together to support others. It would be impossible for me to link to all of these examples. Just recently, a church came together to pay off over $5 million in debt for families. Yet, when we talk about assistance, the first thing that comes to mind is “it’s the government’s job.”
I’ve discussed the lack of individual responsibility in the past. Way back in 1994, Dennis Prager wrote a piece about this which you can still find on the Heritage.org website. He shares that there has been a shift in traditional American thought from individual responsibility for ones self, to only being responsible to yourself. He describes that in the past, individuals believed they were responsible for themselves, realizing that they answered for their actions to God. This was a foundation of Judeo-Christian values, but that has come under challenge in the US. In our society today, the move is away from this personal responsibility to only being responsible for yourself. But to prove this point, look back at the quote from USA Today. She does not feel it is her role to be responsible for her mother, but rather someone else’s job.
I am absolutely sickened by this mentality. We are seeing a transition from a nation who used to care about our neighbor, to a nation that doesn’t even know who our neighbor is. Families that may have once cared for one another, are willing to drop off mom or dad and say “it’s their problem not mine.” We see a society that craves our personal comfort over care and compassion to help others. The American government does not exist to take care of you or your family. It exists to give you the opportunity to do your part to achieve the dreams of you and your family. The government can absolutely step in and help in a national disaster or in situations its needed, but we shouldn’t rely on it for everything. We need to realize we have a responsibility and we must do our part.
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