People talk about the dole and government largesse. They talk about all the charity that we do through government programs. Well I have news for you if you think the above thoughts: There is no charity where government is concerned. Everyone who gets anything from the government EARNS IT.
That may be a shocking statement to many, but it is true. Everyone who gets something from the government, does something to earn it. You may question the exchange, but you cannot deny that there is an exchange of values. To receive food stamps you have to fill out a lot of paperwork, the first step in earning SNAP. You have to live a life of certain means and cannot do or have certain things, you must meet certain conditions, and you earn your “benefits” by having and keeping these conditions, jumping through these and consecutive sets of hoops to continue to earn SNAP.
It may be government or it may not be, or it may be government combined with a community group or non-profit that provides the food bank or food pantry that people go to for food assistance, but the people that go there have to fill out forms, provide information, jump through hoops, to EARN the food they receive there. And they have to make decisions to keep to a certain style of life, to progress this far, and no further, to be able to keep earning the food they receive. Once again, this place of charity is not charitable, no matter how charitable the thoughts and intentions of the people and community groups that are sponsoring them. (This is not to say that people don’t learn charity from these places and programs, and occasionally some true charity does actually occur, but it isn’t because of, but in spite of, the organizational effort.)
If you are so indigent that you cannot afford medical care, and get dumped into MEDICAID, you have EARNED IT by the way you jump through the hoops to get the program, and by what you have given up or lost in your life to be to the point you arrived at to qualify. Oh, you may not have intentionally done many of the things that led you there, you may have been unfairly treated by a lot of people that deprived you of many things you tried to earn to avoid being in this spot, but ultimately, your going through all those things means that you have EARNED those pitiful medical and dental rights that won’t take care of your teeth, just as the five or ten thousand dollars you may have paid a dentist to do something he should have done a year before (when the “insurance” you had should have paid for it instead of your own pocket) and didn’t do properly the year your pocket paid for it, now means that the pitiful MEDICAID dental rights don’t have much to work with, not that it would make that care do any better of a job. And not that that your prior dentist, or your dentist prior to that, will ever be held accountable for their malpractice and neglect.
Oh my, did I wander into a personal observation in the middle of my detached analytical analysis of government charity? How utterly inconceivable that is. For I am a Libertarian on the dole, who never intended to be here, never intended to earn these rights, who believes that when possible anything that can be done without the government should be done WITHOUT the government. Fortunately, unlike a conservative or a liberal, who were they to live up to their beliefs (find me one that does — and you will have found a TRUE UNICORN), should refuse to participate in any thing or program that doesn’t meet their perfect ideal, Libertarianism is much more practical, and allows me to take advantage of what is available now even while on the warpath to get it reduced or eliminated.
So be prepared for the (hopefully) occasional (instead of persistent) diatribe and foray into the life of the underprivileged, or whatever terms are being used at the time to describe those living on “government largesse”, the dole, etc., to be published on this blog, where it will be stabbed and lampooned even while finding humanity and charity in this charityless lifestyle foisted on so many by the “charitable” instincts and largesse of the liberal and lazy.
At The Rainbow 