Column for Dec. 13, 2007

Enslavement of the soul and wallets

Why do we mortgage our future for the sake of some amount of control and political gain in the short term? One thing that liberalism has done to our nation is quite frankly, enslave the masses into a paradigm of selfishness for short term reward and a lack of long term gain.

We see this in such things as the continued use of affirmative action, welfare, prescription drug programs, earned income tax credits, Medicare, and Social Security. These programs make promises of long term gain, but the measurable gains are in fact few. The promise of a long term retirement plan was sold to previous generations in the form of Social Security benefits. Many use this as a primary method of planning for retirement instead of doing anything on their own. People look to the government for a minute fraction of a return on investment. Welfare recipients get a government check that keeps them in economic bondage, just as Social Security recipients. Entire generations of people are being limited as to the amount of money that they can earn or face losing the entitlement payment they wish to continue receiving.

When someone can get more money from the government for doing nothing than earning a living and taking personal responsibility for their own well being, then the government usurps the role of God as a provider and becomes an idol to be worshiped at the altar of a check or automatic direct deposit notification. What is the purpose of this manipulation of the economic system? Power. People who suckle at the teat of the government funding sow tend to vote for those who will perpetuate their hand outs, thus keeping them in power.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1787 and delivered to the Constitutional Convention the following words, as excerpted from the notes of James Madison. "Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power, and the love of money. Separately each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects." This is true of both the ones who provide the dole and the recipients.

Another form of economic slavery is the mortgaging of our own futures for the sake of short term solutions. With all the recent attention paid to the collapse of a bridge in Minnesota and a parking deck in Charlotte, we in Johnston County are dealing with the state of our bridges over Interstate 95. Johnston County has the oldest stretch of I-95, since the interstate began here. We also have the lowest bridges as a result. Overpasses are often being hit by trucks and closed. The bridges get repaired and then get hit again. Instead of replacing the bridges, the Department of Transportation, in their infinite wisdom, is going to pay to raise the bridges so that they do not get hit any more. We are going to pay almost $4 million to raise the same, old, damaged bridges about one foot. Why not just replace the bridges now? It will cost more, but we are also talking about the oldest bridges on the interstate. We have old, banged up bridges, and instead of replacing them with wider, newer, better engineered bridges at the same time, we are going to just raise the old ones. This is abject stupidity to me and a waste of tax payer money. This is one instance where I firmly believe that we should spend more money now to save some later.

Why do we have the problem of needing, nay, wanting to spend less now and then turn around to spend even more later? Because a huge portion of our budget is going to entitlement programs. Both the federal and state governments are doling out cash like a sailor on shore leave to those who will take it. People who are not even citizens and citizens alike get free money, housing assistance, food assistance, transportation, health care, and tax credits at the expense of the rest of us who foot the bill.

Why do we allow the corruption of our values, the sale of our tax money for votes, the enslavement of our people, the abrogation of responsibility, and the pillage of tax payers? Benjamin Franklin had it right, and we tolerate it as a people to our own demise.