Thieves, beggars, "democratic" pillaging

I grow very concerned when I hear of Americans talking about how "the government" should do this or that for them. They seem to forget that the government has nothing outside of the people. Somehow, we've reached a point in our society where we want the government to steal from other Americans so that they might have benefits. Or at least, more benefits. Where is the attitude of personal responsibility? We find every exception in a person's life to excuse their underachieving; about socioeconomic conditions, about how a person was raised, about education quality, or worse yet, how much money was spent on education. Let's face it, education requires little money to teach a person how to read, how to write, and how to do mathematics. With these tools they can accomplish anything. Yet, we act as if these are new social reasons to head down a path of stealing from one group of people to buy the votes of others. None of these things are new, they have been with mankind from the beginning. Even in the earliest days of our own government, of our own nation, these issues existed. Living in liberty was about giving us the opportunity to make our own destiny, without excuse, and without blame.

As a person who grew up in very much a middle-class family, perhaps even slightly lower than middle-class family, I knew that we would have to work hard to change our state. I have been working since I was 15 years of age, when I was putting in 60 hours a week at my father's service station during the summer. Believe me, I got all the dirty jobs. I could see different people come and go to that station and realize a cold hard fact: those that work hard, and got educated, were better off than those who did neither. My life is in my hands even then, as to what I was going to be like, what kind of life I wanted a chance to have. I knew I would never be wealthy, but I also knew I had a shot at moving to slightly above middle-class. But it would require education, and a degree in demand enough to get above-average pay. To tell you the truth, I almost blew it. I got distracted by, well let's say, the distractions one often finds in college. My performance was not as good as it should have been, much to the dismay of my parents. At one time, I thought about dropping out. I did not. I kept going, slowly correcting my bad habits, although there were a lot of successes and failures in that area. Eventually, I graduated with a degree in engineering, and achieved gainful employment. I completely understood my under-performance in college. It was my own fault. No one else's. I determined to not make the same mistake in my work life. Some might suggest I've overdone it in some areas. But I have a responsibility to my family to work as hard as I can to provide for them and to ensure a future for them. I've been with the same company for 30 years, not many people can say that. I know if they let me go tomorrow, it would be up to me to decide my fate, my future, my family's future.

America is a great country, because it encourages freedom, because it encourages liberty, because it encourages personal responsibility as a part of its fabric. There is little wonder that such great achievements in technology and economics are achieved in this country. Such an environment brings out the very best in us. But there are those who do not want to take responsibility, who want to live off the achievements of others, to demand their share of the American dream at the expense of others. This is patently against everything liberty and freedom are about. I would rather those people simply leave the United States and go to a country where the government is distinctly separate from the people and they can live as its wards, as its slaves, and take no responsibility for their lives, and not be a burden to those who do.

Those who demand that the government provide them benefits at the expense of others are nothing more than thieves, nothing more than beggars, who simply ask their elected officials to do the dirty works of pillaging and panhandling for them. People who receive any government assistance, outside of Social Security for which an individual contributes, should not be allowed to vote and perpetuate their burden on working men and women and families.  And we as individuals should take care of our own and not forsake our responsibility to family members in need, as opposed to thrusting them upon every other family in the nation via "government assistance".

Yes, I believe in minimal government, as did our Founding Fathers; yes, I believe in personal responsibility, as did our Founding Fathers; yes, I believe the Constitution was written to protect the individual from the necessary evil that is government, as did our Founding Fathers when they wrote it; yes, I believe thieves and beggars have overcome our government and through power-hungry and therefore corrupt elected officials are pillaging the very type of people who made America great.