I did it without even thinking. As I look back on it, that scares me most of all.
As much as every conservative bone in my body aches over the entitlement attitude in our society today, I tripped over myself and ordered two $40 coupons for digital TV converters for my home.
I don’t need a handout from Nanny Government. I am gainfully employed, and live a comfortable life. But the deadline for the TV switch to digital was looming, and I applied for my coupons so I could save a few bucks on my digital converters.
I should have known better. This program is costing us taxpayers HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars. Yet I got sucked in by the desire to latch onto my government “freebie” just like everyone else. It is a sad commentary on today’s America that we think we deserve a federal handout to help us update our TV technology.
As a nation, we are suffering from Entitlement Mentality Syndrome: an irrational belief that the government owes us something, accompanied by an irresistible compulsion to snatch as much as possible from the government, whether we need it or not. From food stamps, to ADC, to the Earned Income Credit, to corporate bailouts, it seems like everybody in America is lining up to get something from Washington.
Possibly the worst abused program in America is unemployment compensation. Funded through employer contributions, it is controlled by the government, and we ultimately pay for it (as we do with all government-mandated programs) through the higher prices we pay as the employers pass their costs along to their customers.
Don’t get me wrong - I am glad that the fund exists, and it is a great idea to have a safety net for folks who are out of work through no fault of their own. What bothers me is the attitude that too many of us have about unemployment insurance, and the myriad schemes that people use to game the system.
Two months after 9/11, I was laid off for the first time in my life. It was a scary and ego-deflating event. I knew it would probably be difficult to find another job quickly since so many other people were being laid off at the same time.
Several of my friends gave me basically the same advice: Get downtown and sign up for your unemployment. You can draw it for over 6 months. Enjoy some time off, and when your unemployment is about to run out, start looking for another job.
To my mind, this is a pretty lame attitude. Sad to say, I know a number of people who have done exactly that – took a “paid vacation” on unemployment and milked their benefits to the max.
Well, I was going to sign up for unemployment, just in case, since you never know how long it will take to find a job. But before I had time to do it, I actually did find a part-time job, and then two weeks later I snagged a full time job, with a higher salary than I'd had before. Yet I had a friend tell me I was dumb to start working instead of drawing my unemployment. After all, I “had it coming to me.”
Such is our mindset these days.
Seasonal workers in the construction trades, back in the days before unemployment compensation, either saved money to tide them over during the off-season, or found part-time jobs during the off-season, or both. Now they take a winter vacation and rest up, drawing unemployment.
Why work when you can get paid to watch Oprah?
We all know people who have drawn unemployment without really looking for work. We all know people with very comfortable lifestyles who have drawn unemployment, not because they needed it, but because it is available and they feel entitled to it.
Disheartening stories like these are repeated thousands of times every day, all across America. We are becoming a nation of moochers - and those of us who do go to work every day are footing the bill.
I don’t know what the future holds for a country like ours, a country that used to be populated by independent, self-reliant, productive people who built the greatest economic engine in the world, but is now spawning a generation of slackers who are continually looking for their next handout from the government.
I don’t know what the future holds, but unless we change our attitudes, I predict it will not be prosperity.
