Most people don't like to think of the American government's spending habits as it's judgment of the best disposition for other people's money. In truth that's exactly what happens for nearly half of the population of the United States. If you have successfully proven throughout your life that you lack the ability to make good decisions, then you should not be able to give voice to your opinion on who should be in charge of spending other people's money.
First, the facts. The U.S. federal government produces no income. The only income that the federal governement has is the wealth that it seizes from productive United States citizens in the form of taxes.
Second, according to Internal Revenue Service statistics, 47% of all US households escaped paying income tax altogether in 2010. One of two things is true for this subset of the American population. Either they earned too little income to have acquired a tax liability at all, or they qualified for enough handouts and deductions from the government that their tax liablity was eliminated entirely. These are what I refer to as non-productive U.S. citizens. Sure, there are a few in this group that have some sort of physical or mental disability that makes it impossible for them to pull their weight, but the vast majority of them are just plain loafers. By the way, being a fat lardass doesn't count as a physical disability. It's a lifestyle chosen by that person that may very well have led to a physical inability to do work and be productive, but it is a condition that is entirely fixable by that self-same person if they'd just get off their ass, quit eating high calorie / high fat foods, and maybe move around a little but. Sheesh! Don't get me started on that. Now where was I... Let's be clear here. When I refer to non-productive United States citizens, I'm not just referring to those people who receive food stamps, rent assistance in the form of section 8 housing, or supplemental income assistance in the form of monthly checks. I'm also referring to those people who get a significant credit on their income tax return due to the Earned Income Credit or Additonal Child Tax Credit. By definition, people who receive such financial benefits by virtue of being United States citizens are consumers, not producers. They did not contribute enough of their time, talents, ablity, determination, or ingenuity to producing income for themselves and their family, and as such were deemed admittable to the moocher class by the powers that be.
Here's another point of clarification. Where you are today is the sum of the results of all the decisions that you have made throughout your life. Nobody but you is responsible for the trajectory your life has taken.
So what does this have to do with the priviliege of voting you ask? Well, if you are not contributing to the financial conditions that are enabling your dependence, you should not be allowed to have a say in the regulatory (i.e. governemental) conditions that have a direct effect on those that are producing the income and wealth that is providing your sustenenace. You've demonstrated that you lack understanding of what drives the economy and creates fiscal responsibility. This means that you lack understanding of what type of politician (i.e. decision maker) represents the decision making processes that are good for the financial wellbeing of both you and your country.
Let's assume for a moment that if you're reading this you are a member of the producers, not the moochers. It's likely that you already understand perfectly well what type of people I'm referring to. There is something that a lot of you don't understand, however. The people that you employ, whose retirement you are helping fund by paying a portion of their social security, for whom you collect payroll taxes that will eventually be refunded to them, assist in the healthcare of they and their depenedents, and for whom you provide the ideas, financing, and drive to foster a profitable work environment that allows them to draw a paycheck from your bank account... They resent you.
Yep. They figure that you're just lucky. That you're simply more fortunate. That life was given to you on a silver platter and that you never have to really work. That you don't understand what it means to work for a living, and you got where you are because it was given to you by someone else. That if they were in your position, and had been given the same good turns of luck that brought you to where you are, they would be even MORE successful than you because you don't understand what it means to work.
Never mind that they don't have the gray matter necessary to comprehend the fact that without you they're out on their ass praying to be employed by Mickey D's at $7.25 an hour. No disrepect to McDonald's employees intended, but if you work at McDonald's in a capacity other than upper management and are over the age of 23............ First off, you're probably not reading this essay. If you are, then quit wasting your time on something that you lack the cognitive ability to understand. You're simply not going to get it. I set the age at 23 because I realize that there are probably some perfectly intelligent people out there who are putting themselves through college on a McD's wage. You're not in the group that I'm addressing. You're likely to graduate college, go on to be producers (assuming that you're not aiming at being a teacher... more on that in another article...), and eventually be members of the class that I am talking to.
Now that I've identified the subsets of people that I'm referring to, let me get back to the original point. If you're a member of the Moocher class as I've defined it, you need to step the hell aside and let the people who know what works and what doesn't make the decisions for them. If you're one of these parasites and you go to the polls during this coming election cycle there's a pretty good chance that you're going to blindly pull the lever for the Democratic ticket across the board. This may, indeed, increase the amounts of the entitlements that you receive in the short term. In the long term, however, those entitlements are going to go away entirely. Not because the people that you're voting for remove them, but because we simply won't be able to afford to supply those entitlements any longer. As it is now, we can't really afford all the handouts that you're getting. The U.S. is going off the deep end in debt thanks to those handouts.
In the end, it truly is in your best interest not to cast a vote until you are no longer a parasite. You will come out of it in better condition than you are today. This won't be because the amount of entitlements that you receive goes up. It will be because the economy will be growing so fast and so aggressively that you will no longer have an excuse to be a part of the Moocher class. You might just become one of those people who have to pay a little income tax every year. Wouldn't that be great? You'd be able to provide for your own food and shelter, healthcare, transportation needs... I'll go out on a limb here and say that you could even afford to buy some nice shiny new toys. The catch is that once the productive citizens take control of the regulatory environment and create an economy where this is possible, you're going to have to work. It might take you fifty hours a week at first. It's going to be hard, and you will be required to do some things that you might not really enjoy doing. The truth is that after doing those things and seeing that you're moving up in the world thanks to your hard work and determination you're going to be a happier person.
Unfortunately, an environment like this is not going to make entitlements go away. We're always going to have some people who are simply just lazy. The U.S. citizenry has proven time and again that we're willing to carry them if we have to. We'll buy their food, pay for their healthcare, and even give them housing if we have to. We'll still be willing to do that because in general we're just pretty nice people. You've just got to step aside and let the productive citizens do their jobs.
I've also got a word or two for the members of the producer class that happen to be reading this article. You've got a responsibility to your country that you're not meeting as well. You have to step forward and make yourself be heard. Far too many of you don't vote. Vote for those people who will help foster an environment where you can be more profitable in your endeavors. Then, should the winds of fate be such that control of the government is wrenched from the hands of idiots, you're going to have to help those that show drive and aptitude. Pick them out of the crowd and mentor them. You'll know them when you see them because they'll be the ones that are willing to work and learn. Teach them what you know, and then charge them with spreading that knowlege to others. You're also going to have to spend money on them. Give up a little of your own income and spend it on the future of the country. It'll be no different from what's happening with your taxes today, except that you'll have the ability to specify the people that you're assistance is going to. Choose wisely.
It's high time that this country gets back on track.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Wussification of America
Kids today are a bunch of wussies. Not all of them, mind you, but by and large they're a bunch of whiners, complainers, and unmotivated pushovers. The awful truth is that it's not their fault. It's the fault of parents who disregard the character of the children that they made a choice to try and raise to the best of their ability. Most of those parents are failing. Badly.
Case in point. A few years ago my son got involved in a basketball program called Upwards. It's a christian based sports program wherein the youngsters are encouraged to grow both physically and spiritually through the vehicle of sport and competition. Competition my ass. These kids were verbally told every practice and every game that winning didn't matter. That you can't play too hard because someone might get hurt. That every team member, regardless of ability or desire to do well gets the same amount of game time. You know what they did if a team was down by more than six points during a game? They stopped keeping score. What a bunch of crap. This rhetoric is supposed to prepare these kids to be better humans and give them tools to go into the real world? On their website they claim to want to bring out "the winner in every child - regardless of the game's score." In other words, it doesn't matter how well you do the things that you put your time and attention towards accomplishing. It's all a-okay. As long as you tried, right? You even get a trophy at the end. Everybody gets a trophy. They're even all the same size, shape, and color. As a parent I couldn't allow this influence on my boy any more. I took him out. EVERYONE should take their kids out, and Upwards should die an immediate and quiet death. Yet every year, MILLIONS of American kids are subjected to this crap by their parents. It's like this interchange in one of my favorite movies, The Incredibles. Elastagirl says, "Everyone's special, Dash." To which Dash insightfully replies, "Which is another way of saying no one is."
Pardon me, but... what the hell? Think about your daily life. Do you sometimes wish that you made more money? How about that you looked a little better in that swimsuit? Or that your words were more respected by the people around you? You know why you are where you are today? It's the direct result of the sum total of all the choices that you've made in your life. Crappy thing to hear, I know. It means that you are the only one responsible for the things you hate about your life. Personally, I think it all started when they took the jungle gym off the playground.
Remember those things? Hell, the one at my grade school was even on gravel. It was rusty and had lots of sharp corners. It was, quite frankly, frightening. You know why it was frightening? Because you could get hurt. You know what the circumstances that might lead to you getting hurt were? You tried doing something that was new. You tried something that wasn't the safest choice. In other words, you were adventurous. You dared to dream about what it might be like to hang upside down from the top bar by your knees. Here's the kicker. If it didn't work the first time, you tried it again in a different way until you succeeded. Doing it made you feel good. It was rewarding, and gave you a sense of accomplishment.
Kids today are no different than kids from any other age. They have the same inherent sense of adventure and exploration. It's just being killed by their parents and teachers. We can't put a jungle gym there because someone might get hurt. We don't play dodge ball any more because of the favoritism that it encourages in kids and their playmates and someone's feelings might get hurt. That paper that you wrote for English class and failed miserably on because you aint got none good grammer can't be graded in red pen because it might make you feel bad.
The worst part of all that is the end result that it has on the kids. We're insulating them from any possibility of physical pain in the process of being a kid and exploring their boundaries, which is to say that we're encouraging them to NOT explore their boundaries. The big problem with this is that it migrates into their thoughts as well, and they end up being insulated from the possibility of any emotional pain in their life that could result from taking chances. Go ahead and just merge into the status quo. Don't make waves. Don't innovate. Don't try to be exceptional.
If you're a parent or a teacher, you need to wake the hell up. We're training out of our kids the very things that this country is going to need in the immediate future. We're going to need entrepreneurs. We're going to need inventors. We're going to need political leaders who are willing to speak the truth instead of just saying what they think needs to be said to get them reelected, and we're going to need voters who are willing to listen to those people and think for themselves. We're going to need fathers who aren't afraid to discipline their children. We're going to need mothers who know the difference between coddling and nurturing.
In the last ten years I've been exposed to a LOT of kids through community programs and whatnot. Literally several thousand that I've gotten to know well enough to assess their character. I find 95% of them lacking the characteristics needed to fulfill any one of those requirements that I listed above.
Wake up. Teach your kids that it's alright to try new things. Teach them that it's alright to fail. Then teach them that they need to learn from that failure and try again. Otherwise in 30 years you won't be worried any more about the fact that Social Security is broke and you still have to work at age 70... because you won't be a citizen of the U.S. any more. You'll be a citizen of the newly established Communist Republic of Chinese American Protectorates.
Case in point. A few years ago my son got involved in a basketball program called Upwards. It's a christian based sports program wherein the youngsters are encouraged to grow both physically and spiritually through the vehicle of sport and competition. Competition my ass. These kids were verbally told every practice and every game that winning didn't matter. That you can't play too hard because someone might get hurt. That every team member, regardless of ability or desire to do well gets the same amount of game time. You know what they did if a team was down by more than six points during a game? They stopped keeping score. What a bunch of crap. This rhetoric is supposed to prepare these kids to be better humans and give them tools to go into the real world? On their website they claim to want to bring out "the winner in every child - regardless of the game's score." In other words, it doesn't matter how well you do the things that you put your time and attention towards accomplishing. It's all a-okay. As long as you tried, right? You even get a trophy at the end. Everybody gets a trophy. They're even all the same size, shape, and color. As a parent I couldn't allow this influence on my boy any more. I took him out. EVERYONE should take their kids out, and Upwards should die an immediate and quiet death. Yet every year, MILLIONS of American kids are subjected to this crap by their parents. It's like this interchange in one of my favorite movies, The Incredibles. Elastagirl says, "Everyone's special, Dash." To which Dash insightfully replies, "Which is another way of saying no one is."
Pardon me, but... what the hell? Think about your daily life. Do you sometimes wish that you made more money? How about that you looked a little better in that swimsuit? Or that your words were more respected by the people around you? You know why you are where you are today? It's the direct result of the sum total of all the choices that you've made in your life. Crappy thing to hear, I know. It means that you are the only one responsible for the things you hate about your life. Personally, I think it all started when they took the jungle gym off the playground.
Remember those things? Hell, the one at my grade school was even on gravel. It was rusty and had lots of sharp corners. It was, quite frankly, frightening. You know why it was frightening? Because you could get hurt. You know what the circumstances that might lead to you getting hurt were? You tried doing something that was new. You tried something that wasn't the safest choice. In other words, you were adventurous. You dared to dream about what it might be like to hang upside down from the top bar by your knees. Here's the kicker. If it didn't work the first time, you tried it again in a different way until you succeeded. Doing it made you feel good. It was rewarding, and gave you a sense of accomplishment.
Kids today are no different than kids from any other age. They have the same inherent sense of adventure and exploration. It's just being killed by their parents and teachers. We can't put a jungle gym there because someone might get hurt. We don't play dodge ball any more because of the favoritism that it encourages in kids and their playmates and someone's feelings might get hurt. That paper that you wrote for English class and failed miserably on because you aint got none good grammer can't be graded in red pen because it might make you feel bad.
The worst part of all that is the end result that it has on the kids. We're insulating them from any possibility of physical pain in the process of being a kid and exploring their boundaries, which is to say that we're encouraging them to NOT explore their boundaries. The big problem with this is that it migrates into their thoughts as well, and they end up being insulated from the possibility of any emotional pain in their life that could result from taking chances. Go ahead and just merge into the status quo. Don't make waves. Don't innovate. Don't try to be exceptional.
If you're a parent or a teacher, you need to wake the hell up. We're training out of our kids the very things that this country is going to need in the immediate future. We're going to need entrepreneurs. We're going to need inventors. We're going to need political leaders who are willing to speak the truth instead of just saying what they think needs to be said to get them reelected, and we're going to need voters who are willing to listen to those people and think for themselves. We're going to need fathers who aren't afraid to discipline their children. We're going to need mothers who know the difference between coddling and nurturing.
In the last ten years I've been exposed to a LOT of kids through community programs and whatnot. Literally several thousand that I've gotten to know well enough to assess their character. I find 95% of them lacking the characteristics needed to fulfill any one of those requirements that I listed above.
Wake up. Teach your kids that it's alright to try new things. Teach them that it's alright to fail. Then teach them that they need to learn from that failure and try again. Otherwise in 30 years you won't be worried any more about the fact that Social Security is broke and you still have to work at age 70... because you won't be a citizen of the U.S. any more. You'll be a citizen of the newly established Communist Republic of Chinese American Protectorates.
Welcome to My Head
This being the inaugural post in a blog that I hope will become a bastion of intellectual clarity and moral fortitude, let me begin with a few words of introduction.
First, in the interest of full disclosure, John Morley is a pseudonym. I elected to publish this blog using a pseudonym because I intend to say a great number of things here that I'm sure will inflame the passions of a lot of people - in both good and bad ways. Knowing what I know about people with radical tendencies in their thought patterns, it seems a good idea to me to have this collection of commentary remain as anonymous as possible. I can assure you that if you continue reading this blog, you will eventually come across something I write that rubs you the wrong way. I tend to have rather strong opinions on a vast array of topics, and am rather blunt regarding my opinion of the people who disagree with me. This can and will lead to ruffled feathers, virulent commentary, and even murderous intent in some of the more radical elements of our society and I want to shield myself from that as much as possible from the beginning.
Second, I claim no responsibility for the effect that my words are going to have on you. I promise that I will endeavor to maintain the highest degree of integrity in this blog regarding the factual nature of my statements. The big problem with this is that a great many people in our society simply don't want to hear the truth about the state of the world around them. When you're exposed to truth, sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it changes the way you think and feel about things. Sometimes THAT will change the way other people see you, and the way you see them. It's entirely possible that as a result, you could grow as a person. When you grow as a person your relationships with others change. Fair warning.
Third, I'm not perfect. I don't know everything, and I will make mistakes. I hope to grow this blog to a large enough readership that my mistakes will be caught quickly and I can correct them in a timely manner. If you find something in these pages that you know not to be true, and can back that knowledge up with proof, please let me know and point me to said proof so that I can verify for myself and correct my mistake.
All of that said, herein you will find things that make you think. You will either agree or disagree with everything that I say, but it is my hope that in formulating your opinion on each topic your gray matter gets some excercise. This is not a political blog, a foodie blog, a travel blog, a techie blog, or any other kind of blog. It will, however, contain elements of all those and more. Read on, and expand your mind. Welcome to my head.
First, in the interest of full disclosure, John Morley is a pseudonym. I elected to publish this blog using a pseudonym because I intend to say a great number of things here that I'm sure will inflame the passions of a lot of people - in both good and bad ways. Knowing what I know about people with radical tendencies in their thought patterns, it seems a good idea to me to have this collection of commentary remain as anonymous as possible. I can assure you that if you continue reading this blog, you will eventually come across something I write that rubs you the wrong way. I tend to have rather strong opinions on a vast array of topics, and am rather blunt regarding my opinion of the people who disagree with me. This can and will lead to ruffled feathers, virulent commentary, and even murderous intent in some of the more radical elements of our society and I want to shield myself from that as much as possible from the beginning.
Second, I claim no responsibility for the effect that my words are going to have on you. I promise that I will endeavor to maintain the highest degree of integrity in this blog regarding the factual nature of my statements. The big problem with this is that a great many people in our society simply don't want to hear the truth about the state of the world around them. When you're exposed to truth, sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it changes the way you think and feel about things. Sometimes THAT will change the way other people see you, and the way you see them. It's entirely possible that as a result, you could grow as a person. When you grow as a person your relationships with others change. Fair warning.
Third, I'm not perfect. I don't know everything, and I will make mistakes. I hope to grow this blog to a large enough readership that my mistakes will be caught quickly and I can correct them in a timely manner. If you find something in these pages that you know not to be true, and can back that knowledge up with proof, please let me know and point me to said proof so that I can verify for myself and correct my mistake.
All of that said, herein you will find things that make you think. You will either agree or disagree with everything that I say, but it is my hope that in formulating your opinion on each topic your gray matter gets some excercise. This is not a political blog, a foodie blog, a travel blog, a techie blog, or any other kind of blog. It will, however, contain elements of all those and more. Read on, and expand your mind. Welcome to my head.
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