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.
