Enabling A Society

Have any of you ever known someone who at first just needed help, but after a while they were becoming more and more dependent on you?  There was always a reason to need you, and you began to see a pattern arising. Perhaps it was money, or maybe it was emotional well being, but it began to take it’s toll on you until that dreadful day that you had to cut them off.  These are the conversations we don’t like to have; but the ones that we must have in order to help both them and ourselves.  So you did it, only because you knew that enabling that dependency had become unhealthy for both you and them, and for them to really succeed they needed to learn to do things for themselves out of their own volition.  They needed to become independent.

I think at the heart many of us care for people, but sometimes we have to learn how to care.  We learn from these past relationships and try and avoid them when we see them coming; not because we don’t care but because we want to really care for the person the right way, even though there may be some initial pain.

But this idea becomes more difficult when we begin to think of people in groups, on more of a macro scale.  When we see the pain of poverty, for instance, we want to remove that pain and make better the lives of as many as we can.  It’s a deep desire in each of our hearts to try and quench suffering.  But we also know that our resources are quite limited, and to take care of even one family would be an overwhelming task for our wallets.

Here recently, just on the other side of our elections, I’ve had time to think about the overriding philosophies in our culture regarding government intervention.  As I watch our current government try and expand to take care of those who are in need (which happens to be many right now), spending trillions of dollars to stabilize an economy in recession, and trying to affect monetary industries in such a way as to leverage money away from them and toward those in need, I wonder if this is going to work at all.  After all, our budget deficit will increase in magnanimous amounts if proposed legislation is passed, and someone will end up having to pay for that.

So I ask myself is this the best way to care for people?

Small government has taken quite a hit in this election cycle, with that majority of America voting for the candidate who stood for bigger government, proclaiming that government can solve our bigger problems.  And I think that many believe that government is the best way to help those who are in the greatest need.  But I wonder if this is true?  When we grow the size of our social programs because we want to bring aid to more people in need, it certainly affects the whole in the form of increased taxes.  And while I believe this is a problem, there is a much bigger problem looming in the shadows of big government:  dependency.

As I listened today to President Obama’s town hall meeting, I heard a lady of little means cry out for help, needing a roof over her head for her family.  Such a real need is one of housing.  And Obama directed her to his staff and someone gave her a house.  I am very grateful that she now has a roof over her head but what I fear is that because of this (and the rhetoric of his campaign) people in increasing number are going to expect the government to solve all of their problems, and they are going to run to Obama with arms open wide hoping he will fill them. And this is just an impossible task.

And this is the problem with big government.  As I understand it, there are people who live on welfare their whole lives for one reason or another and their children follow in their footsteps.  There are some who stay on it because it’s the most stable form of income they can acquire, especially in times like these.  There are others who simply can’t find a job that pays more than what they receive from welfare.  And this perpetuates dependency on the government in what would seem like a never ending relationship.

What about government health care.  It sounds like a great idea at first, but when we begin to  realize the amount of resources that the government will need to provide everyone with health care, and the regulations they will impose to keep costs low, not just on the doctors and hospitals but on us, it starts to sound way to big and imposing to be realistic.  Do we really want the government telling us that we can’t have that knee operation because it’s too expensive, or that we can’t go to the doctor of our choice to get that knee operation?  Unfortunately, when we become dependents of the government, we lose our freedom to choose.

But even more so, what really happens here is that the government creates an environment that promotes irresponsibility.  And just like in that dependent relationship we mentioned earlier, we become enablers of irresponsibility.

Think about it, when you were growing up, your parents took care of you because you were unable to take care of yourself.  But then at some point you were thrust out of the nest and you had to get a job, go to college, and learn how to take care of yourself.  Now this doesn’t mean that one doesn’t fall on hard times and need assistance occasionally, but for the most part America as a whole has done this very thing.  We all grow up and move out, creating lives for ourselves.

And this is exactly how we should expect our government to operate.  It’s great for it to be there when we fall on hard times, but it should push us to better ourselves through working, learning new skills, and making our own money.  It should promote responsibility.

Everyone who can work should work, and the government should create an environment that promotes jobs, giving incentives for the creation and sustaining of businesses through lower taxes.  Because what we are really talking about is freedom, and we lose that freedom when we ask the government to do to much.

After all, capitalism and small government provides the best opportunity for an ordinary man to improve his lot in life. What do you think would happen if the government told that man on welfare that he only has 6 months left before they remove him from the program?  He will get a job.

So when it comes to actually caring for people (from a government perspective), I really believe the best way is encourage them to take care of themselves.  Sadly, I do not believe this is happening right now as we keep moving toward socialism, but as we aim for the future, we should set a path toward individual responsibility and freedom.