THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 4, 1996 TAG: 9603010024
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
There are two kinds of people: those who have defaulted on the responsibility to maintain their own life, and those who have not. The clash between these two groups is the root cause of all of our problems today. Because those who have defaulted on this responsibility believe they are owed a free lunch, and the government has responded to their requests, the entire nation has degenerated into a morass of pressure groups, each vying for a piece of the pie. Those groups that cry the loudest get the most handouts. They produce nothing and cry that their need entitles them to the fruits of other people's labor.
Your paper frequently has stories about people on welfare who are still poor, as though that is an argument to increase welfare. It is only on reading into the article that the truth is reported: that these people are suffering from the results of their own decisions. They have dropped out of school early, married other dropouts, resorted to drugs, given up the opportunities to further their education, gotten divorced even though children were involved, abandoned their families.
In a free society, these people will be allowed to suffer the results of their own bad decisions. The problems of today can be laid directly at the feet of the welfare system. If we get rid of welfare entirely, families would begin to stick together. We would probably have large families living together. The elderly would have to be cared for by family members instead of being shipped to nursing homes. Younger children might have to wear hand-me-downs, but children would be exposed to more cohesive family units. The family would become the focal point. That is how it should be. And as a society we would be much stronger and more free of Big Brother.
If I give a beggar a dollar, he gets full use of the dollar. If the government takes my dollar and gives the man welfare, he gets 30 cents and the government soaks up the rest in administration costs. If liberals really wanted to attack poverty, they would be screaming about the massive bureaucracy that is soaking up all the money that should be going to the poor.
WILLIAM E. JEFFREYS
Suffolk, Feb. 18, 1996 by CNB