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The Tragedy of Dependency

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

We are all familiar with the sad situation in which an unmarried girl gets pregnant, goes on welfare, becomes dependent upon the government, and never learns to become self-sufficient.  Remaining dependent upon others for her livelihood, she never develops the pride and satisfaction that come from the struggle for independence.  She is trapped in government housing, often surrounded by drugs and crime.  Her children grow up in this unhealthy environment and often repeat the cycle of dependency.  This is a very sad story, and many people have been concerned for a long time about the corrosive effect this dependency has on people in poverty, stripping them of their self-esteem and leaving them at the mercy of government bureaucrats.  However, the story becomes even sadder when the large masses of people in the middle class allow themselves to be similarly seduced into dependency; then, the corrosive effect of dependency is not just on the few in poverty but on the entire society.  Unfortunately, that’s where we are headed today.

Governor Fletcher’s recent proposals to make modest spending cuts in order to balance the Kentucky budget have resulted in numerous protests, mostly by middle class people who have become dependent upon middle class “entitlements”.  The protesters complain that they will not be able to survive a 2.5% cut.  For example, college students protest that they will not be able to afford an education if they have to pay more tuition.  Middle-aged people protest that they will not be able to help support their own elderly parents.  Parents protest that they will not be able to care for their own children.  Not only are these middle class folks protesting any possible decrease in state spending, but they demand more middle class “entitlements”– more state money spent on education, more spent on the elderly, and so forth.  They act like junkies looking for their next “fix”.  Where do they think this money is going to come from?  Don’t they realize that the money to pay for all these programs will come primarily from the pockets of the middle class, either directly in the form of taxes, or indirectly in the form of reduced job opportunities and lower property values? 

As they demand more government handouts, middle class folks are seeing that their taxes go up, and they work harder and harder with less to show for it.  They are becoming trapped in the same cycle of dependency that previously trapped poor people.  Instead of saving for their own retirement, they are forced to pay into social security and have become dependent upon it.  The returns they will obtain from their social security “investment” will be a very bad bargain compared to what they could obtain if the same amount of money were put into privately-owned investments, but at least they feel a sense of security knowing that they will be “taken care of”.  Instead of buying medical insurance to help pay the costs in the event of major medical problems, they are forced to pay into Medicare and are forced to settle for whatever medical care the government decides to “give” them, again a very bad bargain compared to what they could get for the same money in a competitive market, but at least they will have a sense of security knowing that they will be “taken care of”.  Instead of spending their own money to educate their own children as they think best, they are forced to pay hefty income and property taxes to support a “free public” education, giving them a sense of security knowing that their children are being “taken care of”.     

Of course, as we know, since these government programs are monopolies, having no real competition, they deliver lower quality services than would be delivered by privately-funded programs, while charging higher prices.  The cost of these government programs is borne by the very same middle class people they “serve”, so, in effect, when we demand more middle class “entitlements”, we are really demanding to be plundered by the government in order to obtain poorer quality service at higher prices than we would obtain if we had purchased the services directly ourselves.  In the process, we also are forced to pay for additional services that we will never use and would never voluntarily buy.  Once we are taxed to pay for all these middle class “entitlements”, many of us have no money left to buy the services on our own, so we really are dependent on the government, whether we are elderly people dependent upon Social Security and Medicare or young families dependent upon “free public” schools.  And all this for a false sense of security, in order to have the feeling that we are being “taken care of”.     

These days, middle class “entitlements” are busting the state budget, while, at the same time, causing many middle class people to be dependent on the government.  Taxes are already so high that they are discouraging businesses from developing, which reduces job opportunities and causes our economy to stagnate.  If taxes are raised still further to pay for all these middle class “entitlements”, we will slip even further behind.  As we continue to tax ourselves in order to have the government “take care of us”, we are effectively stripping ourselves of the power to be self-sufficient and causing more and more of us to sink into the cycle of dependency.  How can we continue to be so foolish?

Is it a matter of greed?  Do we really believe we can get something for nothing?  Is it a matter of jealousy?  Are we willing to drag everyone down in order to prevent someone else from getting more than we do?  Is it a matter of fear? Are we so afraid of taking responsibility for our own lives that we are willing to allow ourselves to become helpless and dependent?  Is it a matter of not understanding?  Do we not realize that we are effectively eating ourselves away from the inside? 

Regardless of the cause, what we need is a cure.  Doctor Fletcher has proposed a decrease in the income tax rate and some other tax decreases, which he said would attract businesses to the state and would stimulate growth here.  That sounds like a great prescription.  And those taxes should be replaced with ---- nothing!  Let’s not make the tax cuts “revenue neutral” – let’s do even better by making real tax reductions.  Instead of replacing the tax cuts with additional taxes that just shift the burden onto someone else, let’s begin to restore our sense of self-respect and our ability to take care of ourselves and our families by reducing the middle class “entitlement” programs.  Such a move will certainly provoke some protests by people who are caught in the cycle of dependency, but, if we can’t get our next “fix”, we will soon kick the middle class “entitlement” habit and will be much healthier and happier as a result.   

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"Virtually everything that the government does costs more than when the same thing is done in private industry -- whether it is building housing, running prisons, collecting garbage, or innumerable other things. Why in the world would we imagine that health care would be the exception?" --Thomas Sowell

“No matter how much people on the left talk about compassion, they have no compassion for the taxpayers….To liberals, "compassion" means giving less productive people the fruits of the efforts of more productive people. But real compassion means enabling less productive people to become more productive themselves. That way, the poor have not only more material things but also more self-respect, as well as more respect from others, and the society as a whole has a higher standard of living and less internal strife.” – Thomas Sowell

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