In the 1980s, former President Ronald Reagan made the infamous statement, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” He couldn’t have been more correct.
The government’s definition of “help” is more often than not, countless programs designed to make individuals more dependent on the system. This has resulted in millions of Americans relying on ineffective government organizations, programs, and initiatives that have no cap or limit and offer the bare minimum in exchange for votes and control.
Government assistance is supposed to be just that: assistance. Also, temporary! Programs for struggling Americans should be designed to help a person make a life for themselves, not create and incentivize dependency. With our welfare state expanding by massive amounts of money each year, it is becoming more common to see people alter their lifestyles to become recipients of government support. This doesn’t create a more successful and meaningful life, but politicians don’t care, because dependency means votes.
One example of this is government housing. A person who qualifies for Section 8 housing will receive assistance by the federal government for their rent if their income is under a certain amount. But as soon as that family makes more than the income limit, they’ll find themselves being asked to move homes. It’s for this reason you see many individuals purposefully choosing to make less money in order to retain their benefits.
So what would you do if you were in that position? If the things the federal government is offering you are coming from taxpayer dollars, as yourself the honest question, “is this the life I want for myself?” The old adage about a fisherman rings true in this scenario; give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Teaching independence is the key ingredient in any assistance program, without this, complacency is incentivized.
Excessive government assistance strips people of their ability to be self-reliant and resilient. Now I’m not saying that the government should stop helping the poor — the government does have a baseline responsibility to assist the most vulnerable in society. However, government assistance should be well-targeted and temporary. Americans on an individual level need to wake up and realize that they are better off practicing personal responsibility and finding pride in their hard work and independence.
