Okay so I realize that not a soul on earth reads this, but I have decided that I don't care. I'm gonna keep posting shiz anyway. Pretty much because I can. Today a facebook friend of mine posted a YouTube video of congressman Mike Rogers making a very good case against the current bill on the table for Healthcare reform. The video was great. I agree with Mr. Rogers 1000%. But the comments after...holy crap are these people confused. I never respond to this crap online but I decided to today. Somebody has got to set these people straight.
One guy talks about how he wouldn't mind paying for the care of the %15 of Americans who don't actually have healthcare. And you know what? That's just fine. If he wants to pay for their healthcare then by all means go for it. But that does not mean that I and the rest of America have to pay for it.
I donate way more money to charities and such than most broke college students my age do. I pay 10% of my income to my church, a non profit organization which does tons and tons to benefit its members and others with that money. I also donate fast offerings which are used expressly for the help of those in need of food, clothing and other necessities. I feel comfortable donating my money to this organization because I know it goes to the right place.
I know of plenty of occasions in which the church has used this money to help those who can't help themselves with eveything from medical bills to rent and groceries. The church has strict rules and no middlemen. All of the church's leaders are laymen; they don't get paid. So my money does not go into anyone's paycheck. It goes to the people who need it. The church also doesn't just hand out money to people who ask for it.
Before giving anyone money for these types of things the Bishop checks to make sure that the family is doing everything they can with the budget that they have, in order to pay their bills. The church isn't going to give them money to pay their phone bill if they have a plan with unnecessary features, or give them money for a grocery bill that they could pay themselves if only they discontinued their cable TV subscription. And the church will not continue to help a family for months and months if they are not putting their own blood sweat and tears into providing for themselves. The government doesn't do it like that.
Long story short, (okay not THAT much shorter - but a little bit) I give MY money that I earn to organizations that I trust and that I know will not squander my money on people who are not trying to take care of themselves, or waste it all on middlemen. I bring this up because by creating a government healthcare plan, paid for by MY taxes the government forces me to donate to people that THEY deem deserving of it; I don't get a say.
Plenty of our money is already used in medicaid and welfare programs that waste our money. Federally funded programs like ACORN use our money to help prostitutes set up brothels and get illegal home loans(see foxnews.com). So why in the heck would I want to give more of MY money to the federal government so that it can go to people who don't deserve it and aren't working for it?
By charging me higher taxes to pay for other's healthcare and the like, the government takes away MY freedom to give MY money to charitable organizations that I want to donate to.
Another guy argues that it is our duty to help these people because they cannot help themselves(apparently he thinks all of this 15% are incapable of working). He then states that we must help them until they can help themselves and then they will become productive and contribute. There is a SERIOUS flaw in this guy's argument. He ASSUMES (and you know what they say about assuming) that people WANT to work and WILL work. I'm sorry to sound sinister but I have met WAY too many lazy people who are all too happy to leech off of the government(us) and stay home watching MTV (which we pay for) instead of working.
I lived in Brazil for 2 years and there I saw a great example of how the government spoon-feeding people does them no good in the end. I love Brazil and it's people more than most of you could possibly understand, but Brazilians are very laid back people. The kind of people who don't work unless they have to. In northern Brazil, where I lived, the people are very poor and most of them are on some kind of welfare. At the beginning of every month they line up for blocks and blocks to get their checks from the government. The problem in Brazil is that they have a very small upper class and an even smaller middle class, and these two classes pay for a very very large poor class. So the checks that these people are getting aren't even big. They use these checks and whatever profit they can make selling candy and baked goods on street corners to pay for their rent and food for their families.
Systems like theirs, which reward people for not contributing to the system contribute to a polarization of the classes. In order to survive you either give up and lay back, in order to qualify for government assistance, or you work your butt off in order to break into the upper class. Which is much much harder there than it is here. By creating a similar system here - one in which you get free healthcare for not working and have to pay for it when you do work - we will similarly polarize our own classes and increase our own poor class by exorbitant amounts.
We live in a society that teaches us to do what is right for ourselves, as individuals. When was the last time you saw a movie or TV show in which a character was encouraged to give up their dreams in order to contribute to the family or community as a whole? I, for one, can't think of any, and I have seen A LOT of movies. They all result in the rest of the family making sacrifices so that one person can follow their dreams. Then in real life we all have this image, this idea, in which everyone is supposed to cater to our needs in the end and support the individual's happiness.
And when there are programs out there that actually pay people for not going to work and not contributing then that is what they do. Everyone has those days where they just don't want to go to work. If you could still live at the same comfort level and not have to work every day wouldn't you do it? "but a welfare check can't pay for the rent on my house and the kinds of food i like to eat" you say, but what if you had already grown up in the poor part of town? In a tiny apartment and learning to live with less expensive food and clothing? well a welfare check covers that doesn't it?
I don't want any of you thinking that I am categorizing everyone with needs as lazy and poor, because that's not true. But I am saying that it is a factor. I am saying that by rewarding people for not contributing to society then we will create a larger problem for ourselves and our country. A problem which then gets passed on generation after generation. Don't we already have enough problems as it is?
The point of all this is that we cannot bring some people up simply by pulling others down. There are crooks everywhere trying to scam others and make money by doing as little as possible. Those people are scum and I'd like to smack them. But I am a firm believer that a person at the bottom CAN work their way to the top by working hard and honestly. My own father did not graduate high school. He got a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken and worked his way into management. He worked hard 80-hour weeks with little to no sleep.
After marrying my mother they ran into some of the scum that I already mentioned. These people were dishonest and through corrupt business dealings pushed my parents into bankruptcy. From that point on my father and mother have been perpetual entrepreneurs, constantly working to dig themselves out of that bankruptcy hole. They've done everything from VHS duplication to party planning and even reselling restaurant equipment on eBay. I know no two people in the entire world who work harder. They've done everything in their power to make it in the middle class. They are both over 50 now and still work for themselves; they work hard and do honest work. AND they did all this while raising 6 children. You can't tell me that hard work can't take you places.
The healthcare and poverty problems cannot be blamed on a lack of government intervention. I find that most (if not all) of the problems we encounter in our country are a result of two things: laziness and greed, people attempting to work less and earn more as to glorify themselves and fatten their own wallets. What I feel is the best way to solve these problems is to find ways to do away with both of laziness and greed in our society. Not surprisingly both of these attributes are developed at a very young age in the home and taught/influenced by parents, teachers, and media - but that is a different rant for a different day.
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