Slavery in the United States was officially abolished by the Emancipation Proclamations of 1862 and 1863. That does not mean that there are not people still enslaved in our country. It is not necessarily the kind of slavery that most of us readily identify as such, but a slavery of the spirit. Our welfare system enslaves us all.
Currently we have four generations of people who are dependent almost entirely on what government is willing to give them. If they earn money on their own, they are deprived of the Government’s largess. If the household has a married couple in the residence, incomes of both is considered and there is no Government contribution to their income. If they have too much in the way of assets, the household does not qualify for government aid. The more children an unmarried woman has, the more she will receive from the government, unless she is generating income, herself. The result is an entrapment of an entire segment of our society in poverty and helplessness. They are de facto wards of the State, and have little opportunity to free themselves of subservience. They are doomed to their miserable fate as are their children.
Slavery does not end there. Those who are not trapped in the welfare pit are preyed upon by the Government which perpetuates the hopelessness of the poor. We have to pay a large bureaucracy to administer the dole and provide the funding for the meager assistance provided by the system. For those of us who provide the forced contribution to this shameful scheme, the tariff is at least 1/3 of our annual incomes to fund the Government which operates an economic sink hole. Truly, much of our tax dollars are used for the necessities of society, as a whole, but too much is used to keep too many in wretched states.
How can we possibly correct the injustice? It will not be easy, and certainly not be painless. We have to start with individual responsibility. We cannot expect to have banks or individuals bailed out. It has been observed that there is no freedom without responsibility. As long as our current system is perpetuated, none of us is free. We are all slaves to the Government. Instead of giving money in small packets to those whom we have discouraged from being productive, reward productivity. Educate and supplement income to a livable level. Require those receiving assistance to develop skills to support themselves. Once people can lift themselves out of poverty, they are free to determine their own futures. Unless all are free, no one is free.
Dr. Jacobs is a Reproductive Endocrinologist, practicing in Carrollton, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas. He completed his residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and remained at that institution to become its first fellow once Baylor achieved accreditation for an advanced training program in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Jacobs has served on the faculty of several medical schools and was director of Reproductive Endocrinology at Texas Tech Health Science Center in Amarillo. Currently, in addition to his clinical activities caring for infertile patients and those with recurrent pregnancy loss, he is Chairman of the IVF committee at Baylor Medical Center in Carrollton.
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Mon, Jan 25, 2010
Waste, Welfare