This is sort of an addendum to my previous article about our impossible-to-balance budget which showed that mandatory, i.e. entitlement, spending alone exceeds federal revenue. The reason why entitlement spending keeps rising and revenue keeps falling is because it is a system rigged to fail. You can do as well working one week a month at minimum wage as you can working a $60,000-a-year, full-time, high-stress job...
So why bother to work and pay taxes to support our government finances when you are "entitled" to the same or better lifestyle whether you do or you don't?
Obviously the socialist notion of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is an utter failure because it flies in the face of human nature to only be as productive as necessary and to consume as much as possible! The capitalist system relies on the ambition of individuals to produce as much as they hope to consume and their fear of discomfort and poverty. Until the welfare system is abolished, the downward spiral will continue. Wealth is the reward for hard work, not a birth right.
It is unfortunate that we're likely to learn this lesson the hard way.
But at least we can take solace in the fact that more poor people will be helped once the welfare state collapses under its own weight than it currently does. And I mean truly help the poor -- both with more actual money put to work and in a way that encourages and uplifts them to become productive members of society.
Unfortunately, the sudden collapse rather than controlled unwinding of the welfare state will kill millions before we get to that point. If only people had the foresight to dismantle it now in a way where private charity can take over in an orderly fashion instead of greedily trying to squeeze everything they can from it. But alas, I'm afraid human nature doesn't work that way. I'll continue to be a Cassandra and hope to get through to as many as possible. The rest, tragically, will have to sleep in the bed they've made.
