Russell Taylor at Bogpaper:
Love that last paragraph. To the people who gave us welfare and fatherless families and endemic unemployment and states whose governors are more likely than murderers to go to prison and feral violence in gun-control utopias and, well, Detroit-- the incarnation of liberalism-- your job is done.
You've done enough already.
Lefties, your work here is done
Leftists like their pet victims to be helpless, blameless and utterly dependent on their largesse, in order to wring the maximum feel-good value from them. Metaphorically, they want to prop the unemployed up in bed, give them a nice cup of tea, and tell them to rest up until they feel ready to face the world again. No pressure. Take as long as you like. This isn’t real compassion, because someone who gives a damn about others wants them to live fulfilling, independent lives. It’s more like Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy, where caregivers deliberately keep others in a state of dependency to feed their own pathological need to feel kind and attentive. When the Tories tell able-bodied layabouts to start pulling their weight, it does two things to lefties. On the one hand, it enables them to play David to the Right’s Goliath, which pleases them like nothing else. On the other, it threatens their little game and makes a mockery of their faux concern. Either way, they have an excuse for making a lot of noise.
In the Magic Kingdom of the liberal imagination, people are paid to do whatever takes their fancy – be it noodling away in academia, shouting orders at proles, or sitting on their arses all day. The unemployed are living out the socialist dream of getting something for nothing, and the Left don’t appreciate their bubble being burst. The supersized state is the guarantor of this other Eden, and the Left takes any right-wing interference with its autonomy, or with the lives of its leisured inhabitants, as an act of war.
Liberals like to cry their crocodile tears over those who can’t find work for love nor money, and bemoan the inability of the Tories to create full employment. Well, my sorrowful lefty friends, it was you who screwed the economy, destroyed jobs with the minimum wage, overregulated employers, then encouraged immigrants to take whatever jobs were left in the ruins. It was you who vandalised our schools, leaving young people ill-equipped for a working environment. It was you who helped millions of people get pointless degrees that left them unable to find jobs commensurate with their ‘talents’. And it was you who created the welfare system that discourages people from joining the workforce and stunts the growth of the productive sector with its expense. I’d say we could do without your suggestions. You’ve done more than enough already.
Love that last paragraph. To the people who gave us welfare and fatherless families and endemic unemployment and states whose governors are more likely than murderers to go to prison and feral violence in gun-control utopias and, well, Detroit-- the incarnation of liberalism-- your job is done.
You've done enough already.
That's the shortest break from blogging I've ever seen. One day...
ReplyDeleteVis-a-vis dependency, one of the lesser-told stories of the current administration's looting of the Treasury is the explosive growth of the "Disability" Industry.
ReplyDeleteIn 2003, the agency paid $71 billion in disability benefits to 7.6 million people. By 2012, the agency was paying $137 billion in benefits to 10.9 million people.
--- WSJ 12/13
Five years ago, I was negotiating a new part-time contract with a local university, and they insisted I produce a Social Security card as one of the required means of establishing my citizenship. I had viewed the card as a basically useless (because I never used it) addition to all the other bulk in my wallet and stashed it away somewhere. I had to obtain a new one.
Well, things got a bit rushed because I never anticipated having to produce such an arcane document, and I ended up having to go down to the local Social Security office. I was one of two people in there - the office was packed and overflowing into the parking lot - over fifty and all the others were in the queue for benefits (I waltzed through, for once!). They had a paper number tag queue like the local deli. :-)
If you look at SSI statistics, native Americans and blacks - two particularly hard-hit ethnic groups by Taylor's lights - are basically taking early retirement in huge numbers. The benefits are collected, paid out until age 67, then Social Security retirement begins. In Hale county AL (60% black), Progressive Jubilee comes once a month...
[N]early 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability. On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.
--- NPR
The two major diagnoses used to obtain benefits are mental illness (e.g., "depression") and back pain. Disability claims are decided by special administrative judges, and some of those judges have 90%+ approval rates. In any other business, that's called a "rubber stamp".
But it's not just a collection of early retirees. A whole legal specialty has sprung up. Back pain clinics and psychiatric disability specialists are doing a booming business. E-Z loan storefronts dole out high-interest money on disability benefits to tide the recipients over 'til "the check" arrives. The list is endless. The dependency is endless. The fix is in. The check is in the mail.
And by the way, Doc. Glad you're still here while you're still here.