Raleigh, N.C. – The inefficiency of the government as a whole has been very clear throughout this pandemic and it says a lot about our society in general. Most Americans do not even take notice to the insane way things are being prioritized right now.
A major theme since this pandemic began and public schools had to close has been “providing school meals to hundreds of children, everyone is eligible”. This has been continued even when several people helping to provide these meals to the children have tested positive for COVID-19, thus risking further spreading the virus and contradicting the reasoning for closing the schools in the first place. Look deeper, there is a major problem with our society that this is seen as a “much needed” and “indispensable” service. What do these children do for meals on weekends? What about during the summer months? The winter and spring breaks?
It is not the government’s, or for that matter the public school system’s, job to provide meals for your children. What does this say about homes if they seriously cannot provide a child with a peanut butter sandwich for lunch? Even so, what does the child do for breakfast? Dinner? Again, on the weekends? This is a ridiculous use of taxpayer money.
People who truly need the financial help for groceries in their home are already eligible for a plethora of other taxpayer-funded social programs. Why are we now adding this to it on top of possibly providing an “out” to parents who already can afford on their own to provide lunch for their children, but may be too “busy” or lazy to do so? All of this on the taxpayer’s dime once again.
In fact, if public schools are so unnecessary that they can be closed at a moment’s notice by the government and parents forced to help their children learn virtually, then why is so much taxpayer money being used for public schooling in the first place?
Then we bring ourselves over to the more recent talks on the federal level of providing hazard pay for “essential” employees during this pandemic. Firstly, who is essential? Everyone believes their job is essential and they are right. Each job plays an important part in our economy as a whole along with providing each person with the means to provide for their family. However, we cannot, on the taxpayer’s dime, give more handouts to everyone. It is a matter of being politically correct as well. Congressmen, senators, the media, are all worried about being politically correct more than the truth.
If hazard pay were to be initiated, who should really get it? Should it really be for the “grocery workers” who push buttons on a screen behind a plexiglass? Should they really be getting the proposed $13/hour additional rate the same way actual “front-line” employees, such as doctors, nurses, imaging technicians, Respiratory Therapists, and nursing assistants are? A “front-line employee” should only be used to describe people who spend each and every day that they go into work caring at the bedside for people with known COVID-19 infection. Many of these patients on ventilators or people who spend their work days testing people for COVID-19.
Ask yourself, are those jobs really the same as pressing the buttons on the screen behind the aforementioned plexiglass? Should we really even consider paying those people the same hazard-pay as the real front-line healthcare workers? Or does this have again to do with political correctness and worrying about people’s feelings? It is the whole “everyone is a hero” mentality. It is lame and it is a detriment to our society in many ways.
Of course everyone’s job is “essential”, even the people who are told to not to come into work right now. However, every job is different and it is disrespectful to the people truly risking their lives every day they work to compare them as the same. The government can only afford to offer so many “hand-outs”. If people in government cannot agree to put political correctness aside and do what is actually right then they should put the taxpayer money back down for now and reevaluate.
Maybe, the solution is to encourage the grocery stores who obviously have a high sales margin right now to provide an incentive to their employees who they are probably asking a lot more of right now. The hospitals can evaluate which staff are actually taking care of these COVID positive patients and provide them with the fair compensation that has been long deserved. Healthcare workers, especially nurses, have long been the most overlooked, yet obvious people in hospitals. However, none of this can or should be forced by the government, especially when they cannot handle separating the truth from feelings.
The fact that any of this even needs to be said shows the intricate problems within our society and the government’s inefficiency at handling them when called upon. If people would take responsibility and provide for their own families, and if congress, along with the media could put political correctness aside for once to do what is actually right for America, this country would be in a much better place.
This is a guest article by Tara White. To contact Tara, please reach out through The Liberty Loft website. Want to be a guest author, please check out our submission page for more info. Please consider donating to support The Liberty Loft so we can continue to deliver the content you find here.
