Rights and Entitlement Rob the Spirit

RIGHTS AND ENTITLEMENTS ROB THE SPIRIT

By Domenick Maglio PhD Traditional Realist

A government to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.

                                                            Thomas Jefferson

FDR believed and Obama believes that the government should and could provide guaranteed rights to its citizens. These rights will be granted without any responsibility preconditions, reservations or repayment. These rights were not endowed by our Creator as envisioned by our founding fathers. Instead they are decreed through the power of the government.  Thus any other government would have the same power to reinterpret and even deny any rights.

The rights that have been proposed are not limited to the following list. The right to a useful and well paying job or years of unemployment insurance, the right to adequate food and clothing, the right to vacations, the right to a substantial home, the right to a college education, the right to a spouse, a right to divorce, a right to abortion, a right to health care regardless of mistreating oneself.

Our founding father’s legacy was the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These rights are endowed by our Creator. They did not relieve citizens of being responsibly self-reliant. Instead they restricted the federal government’s power to maximize citizen’s freedoms. These learned men understood that people can better use their energies to provide for themselves than can any bureaucrat.

The USA has a $14.3 trillion debt and growing. We are on the brink of national bankruptcy. We have seen politicians from both parties make ridiculous promises but do not have the courage to lay out a plan to pay for them. Watch out for anyone whose promises sound too good because they usually are. The “smart “ politician grants a new give away program but makes sure the payment will kick in well after he is reelected or leaves office. Our country’s debt is placing our sovereignty in jeopardy due to the cowardice of our politicians. Jefferson stated that debt was the greatest danger to America’s survival. 

These entitlement programs, because of inefficiencies, unintended consequences and corruption always cause budgets to go beyond the original estimates. As more people are unable or unwilling to find employment the need for public assistance grows. Almost 50% of Americans receive some sort of government assistance. The “safety net” and other government handouts are becoming an acceptable way of existing in America. For a growing number of people working for a living will become of little value when taxes almost equal earnings.

Motivation to be industrious loses to idleness when people’s earnings are robbed by the government. When revenue from taxes falls with a drop in the number of people in the private sector and the dependency of more people on the dole, services are diluted to meet the higher demand. Quality and choice of services are inevitably limited by the reality of a dying economy.

The lines become longer, the services poorer and expectations become more fatalistic. Citizens are reluctant to give up their right to free services and learn to accept mediocrity. Week by week, month-by-month, year by year the spirit for life is sucked dry. They become hopeless and helpless.

People surrender their independence to better their lives for the miserable handouts they receive from government. Empty shelves, lack of choice and drabness become acceptable, the norm. Self-reliance and faith in God are replaced by a numbness of the spirit.

Some individuals somehow believe the answers to improve their lives rests with the government bureaucrats even though the government fails time after time to meet their promises. Propaganda, alcohol and drugs will increase to dull the pain. They lose the knowledge that they can accomplish anything they want as long as they are willing to pay the price.  There is little urge to be free.

This is the final step in the process of people willing to give up their freedom for false promises and security. It is not a forced slavery but it becomes slavery nevertheless.

Americans, wake up sooner rather then later. Socialism/communism makes for ungrateful, psychologically weak and spiritless citizens who have sold their souls to the government.

Dr. Maglio is the author of  Invasion Within and Essential Parenting.  He is a psychotherapist and the owner/director of Wider Horizons School.

Visit: www.drmaglio.com.