Long gone are the days epitomized by those words uttered by John Kennedy, words that we thought timeless, in his request that we ask not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country. A sentiment that seems to hold very little, if any, meaning for many Americans today. So when, exactly, did the wheels come off, with it becoming acceptable behavior for Americans to simply not work? Recently, Charles Murray, author of "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 – 2010," wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “It must once again be taken for granted that a male in the prime of life who isn't even looking for work is behaving badly. There can be exceptions for those who are genuinely unable to work or are house husbands. But reasonably healthy working-age males who aren't working or even looking for work, who live off their girlfriends, families or the state, must once again be openly regarded by their fellow citizens as lazy, irresponsible and unmanly. Whatever their social class, they are, for want of a better word, bums.” I could not agree more!
Our national unemployment rate, that we’re told is slowly declining, is now cited as being at 8.1 percent. However, I think most of us realize that it significantly understates the true number of unemployed Americans since it only includes those people actively looking for work in the past four weeks and not those who have left the work force entirely. The “official” unemployment rate, the one that measures adults who have actually left the workforce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6, remains firmly in double-digits at 14.8 percent. Even this probably underestimates things, because it does not include those who never entered the workforce or those who failed to seek unemployment benefits after leaving the workforce. Whatever the true number of unemployed able-bodied Americans, it is much larger than it should be. These people are straining our economy and our collective ability to support them. And something else that proves the fallacy of this 8.1 number is the fact that if we had the same number of people in the work force that we had when Barry took office, our unemployment rate would be over 11 percent not this silly 8.1.
Part of the problem here is that far too many of our laws actually encourage workers to look for a government check rather than look for a job. Although the 1996 reform of welfare capped the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefit to five years, the program still incentivizes many teenagers to become unwed young mothers and fathers to disappear. The Social Security Disability Insurance program, which paid out $130 Billion in benefits to 10.6 million Americans in 2011, uses 1950s medical standards for manufacturing jobs to determine a worker’s disability. Sadly, when a region loses jobs, disability applications rise, suggesting that many Americans are using disability benefit when they are employable. And in the last three years that number has gone up significantly. As Murray, also a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, writes in his recent book, Coming Apart: “(O)nce, working at a menial job to provide for his family made a man proud and gave him status in the community... (N)ow it doesn't.” This perfectly captures our cultural shift.
One problem is the number of unintended consequences that have resulted from those benefits that have been established with the intention of genuinely providing help to those truly in need. You see, these benefits besides helping the needy, also allow, even encourage, the able bodied to play the system. Our parents’ generation believed in hard work as an ethical mandate. Too many today have shifted to a concept that if something is “legal” it is also ethical. Many of our leaders actively encourage the able-bodied to get maximum benefits. Old Nancy Pelosi recently even lauded the increase in the number of people on food stamps under Barry “Almighty” as a “badge of honor.” Remarkably, Pelosi outdid this ethically barren statement when she celebrated “ObamaCare” as allowing anyone to quit their job and pursue their passion. Calling this a “liberation,” she said, “You want to be a photographer or a writer or a musician, whatever – an artist, you want to be self-employed, if you want to start a business, you want to change jobs, you no longer are prohibited from doing that because you can’t have access to health care…"
And despite his speeches throughout 2008 where candidate Barry implied that Americans should take responsibility for their fate, his presidency has been bereft of a moral call for self-reliance, sacrifice or hard work. In fact, he is now campaigning by threatening that if the Republicans win, Americans will have to become self-reliant. God forbid! In late 2011, Barry paraded some examples of Americans fending for themselves and declared: “That's not the America I believe in. It's not the America you believe in.” And, ya know, it’s not just the Democrats who can be said to be to blame here, the Republicans have been complicit, too, I’m sorry to say, because they have yet to take a principled stand. In fact, Republicans have agreed repeatedly to “temporary” extensions of unemployment benefits. More, they blithely oppose any tax increases, even loophole cuts, decrying any concept of sacrifice and instead only suggest modest budget cuts down the road. They too promise Americans they can have it all – and ignore that it is our children who will be left to pay for all of the excesses of today.
As I have already alluded to, President Kennedy set an exemplary bar when he told every American to “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” While our brave soldiers still live this creed, sadly our recent presidents have not. For example, Barry blew it after he created and then ignored the Bipartisan Deficit Commission, which suggested a plan of shared sacrifice. Is it any wonder that more and more Americans choose to live off the government rather than seek gainful employment? Right now, someone on unemployment benefits simply needs to show they are actively looking for work – and this can go on for up to two years. TWO YEARS! Yet, even Barry’s top economic adviser has published research showing that extending unemployment benefits increases the jobless rate, proving that the longer the unemployment benefits, the longer people will stay unemployed. My view is that any unemployment benefits lasting for more than a few weeks should be tied to volunteer work at a non-profit organization.
What is often left out in these discussions is that a government check exhausts self-worth while an earned check gives a feeling of value, worth and contribution to an enterprise. The truth is that Americans that do work are hard workers. According to OECD numbers, the average employed American in 2010 worked 1,778 hours per year. This is more than Japan, France and Germany. Most Americans love our nation and care about our future. I believe almost all Americans will do more with motivation, moral leadership and a sense of unity. I’d like to think that Americans would get off the dole or start sacrificing if they felt everyone else was also sacrificing. But they need to hear it from the top, but sadly, now, our leadership and our laws only encourage taking. Except for our brave soldiers, we are far from the Kennedy ideal of giving to our country. It’s time we rethought our approach and considered the burden we are putting on our children. I would welcome any of today's political leaders voicing the Kennedy-type call for patriotic sacrifice. I’m not holding my breath.
Today's "we can have it all" leaders, instead of demonstrating even the slightest level of honestly with the American people, choose to expand costly entitlements, raise taxes on the “wealthy” and promise equality of outcome. The Democrats have succeeded in turning this once great nation into a what is now nothing more than nation of freeloaders who cannot seem be bothered to get off the couch to go to work. I mean why should they? The government will give you money for free, of course it’s the taxpayers money, but who cares about them, and for up to two years. Those same taxpayers who are the ones actually getting off their asses and going out to work every day while many of their fellow Americans do nothing, and pay nothing. Sadly it seems that any desire, whatsoever, to possess any kind of a work ethic today, has basically become passé. Regrettably, these days, work has become nothing more that just another dirty four-letter word. Far too many people in this country no longer see the need to work for anything. It should simply be provided to them.
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