A Lesson in Liberalism

My half-sister, who is much younger than I, considers herself a liberal. She graduated from NY University with a degree in psychology four years ago. She put that degree to work for 6 months working as a social worker in an elementary school. She found that the bureaucracy and red tape made it nearly impossible for her to do her job to help at risk kids or kids with special needs.

One of her goals in life is to be self-sufficient and to live off the power grid. The first step for her to reach that goal was to learn how to farm. She never had a very high opinion of food manufacturers and routinely blames big corporations (not personal responsibility) for making humans addicted to fats and sugars that are making us unhealthy. She believes strongly that organic foods are the only way to go. She spent several years working on a farm learning how to grow crops and how to raise animals to make dairy products.

To learn more about different crops and animals she took a job on a Kauai (Hawaiian Island) farm. She likes the work and loves the scenery of the gorgeous tropical island, but only worked the job for a meager six months. She was anxious to leave, why? She did not care for the people. She classified a majority of the people on the island as “moochers”. As a farmer, my sister did not make much in the way of a salary. Because she was poor, many of the locals tried to coax her into getting “free” meals and “free” care at a variety of different sources including churches. But as a responsible and able human being my sister did not consider herself as being a person who needs or deserves any handouts. She concluded if she needed more money, she can get another job.

What made my sister angry about the whole situation on Kauai is that all of the people receiving handouts were all very well educated people capable of working, but refuse – they were living their dream of being “surfer beach bums”. They lived in tents and each night they would sit around a camp fire drinking and smoking pot. They would brag about all their college degrees, and of course, lecture each other on how to make America a better place to live. Their view of America is not much different than Woody Guthrie’s 1940 song “This Land is Your Land”. In other words, they believe America should be a welfare state supporting them and their surfing hobby.

My sister was obviously puzzled to see normal and smart people unwilling to work, but instead choose to be parasites on society. This was not her vision of welfare. Yes, welfare was for the poor, but not for people who choose to be poor. If everyone lived as Woody Guthrie preaches in his famous song, then where would the wealth come from for those free meals and free clinics? After all, if everyone chose to live as a “deadbeat” there would be no wealth, there would be ingenuity to create products, and there would be no one to grow the crops and cook the free meals.

And what’s even worse was that a majority of these of parasite moochers complained about their free meals and were not in the least bit grateful for what they received. These parasites would complain about everything that is wrong with society, but they refuse to take any action. People have a responsibility to themselves and to others to make a positive impact on society. People should never choose to be a burden on society. And if people refuse to have a positive impact on society, then they should have no right to complain. When people become part of the problem and not part of the solution, they have absolutely no right to complain.

I detest people who choose to be parasites that are nothing more than carbon emitting oxygen thieves. But I can at least credit these deadbeats with educating my sister on how welfare provides little incentive for people to advance themselves. Thus, their actions are making her viewpoints more conservative.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)