Entitlement Nation

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Winston Churchill

My good friend John Lerch asked me a few weeks ago why I hadn't written anything about the new Obama Administration. At the time I told him there wasn't much to write about. Obama had only been president for two days. There was no hurry; I was sure there would be plenty of comical scenes in the near future.

Well, it didn't take long. President Obama last week held a town hall forum in Fort Meyers, Fla., with an audience that evidently thought they were there to attend the taping of a game show. One woman wanted Obama to furnish a car and a house. An unemployed worker who made $3,000.00 a month wondered why his unemployment benefits were only $1,100.00 a month, and why the government wasn't making up the difference.

Then, a college student working at McDonald's wanted the President to increase his benefits (or, presumably, force the company to). I am not exaggerating when I say my 9 year old son is more articulate than this "college student".

It's sad that people are in such desperate straits, and our hearts go out to them. But it's sadder still that the leadership of this country exploits their suffering in order to gain control of free markets, increase government involvement in every phase of our lives and destroy individualism, independence, and any incentive to be productive.

It may be my imagination, but even Obama seemed taken aback by the overall tone of the meeting, and some of the requests, but most probably by the realization that he now has to feed this beast he has created. And, like all living organisms, the more you feed it, the larger, and the hungrier, this beast will get.

As I told John in our conversation, this stuff will pretty much write itself.